An Effective Home Filing System That Saves You Time

How To Use A Filing System For Your Home

You ensure you’re using your home filing system by setting aside time on your calendar (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually etc) to reinforce your new filing habits. 

What you’ll find is that the more frequent you “work your plan,” the easier + more routine the home filing system becomes. The more you customize your categories + sub-categories for all that you need — the less time it takes to file them away.

I can’t tell you how much our clients appreciate the fact that we say loudly — organizing systems fail — when we ignore them. And our organizing members love the ongoing organizing because when life gets hectic the relationship with their organizer is what holds them accountable + keeps them on top of their home filing system.

In other words, the best filing system for your home is the one you use 🙂

A Digital Filing System

How We Digitize Every Receipt, Bill + Important Document To Be Nearly 100% Paperless

When we started Elegant Simplicity back in 2009, we quickly realized that giving a client physical copies of paperwork was not only wasteful for the environment but it was also unbeneficial to the client. 

We were giving clients paperwork only to help them organize it. In a nutshell, we were adding to their problem before helping take it away.

So, a few short months into our business we began delivering all of our documents digitally to clients, general contractors, subcontractors, architects + builders. 

And we created a digital filing system for our business that meant less paper, better planet.

But, a question still remained unanswered. 

What do we do with physical copies of bills + receipts? We began with a scanner which was big clunky + quite honestly a pain in the you know what but we understood the value + knew technology would progress quickly. 

And before we knew it, we discovered an app that transformed our iPhone’s into a pocket-sized scanner. 

Today, we use Adobe Scan (available in the app store) for when a paper copy of a bill, receipt or any other important document is mailed to us. We open the app, snap a picture + file it away in our digital filing system.

And we use the Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan Home Filing System for both business and personal.

In fact, the same way we categorize or subcategorize physical filing systems we do for digital filing systems. So, let’s talk about it…

How To Create Continuity Between Your Physical + Digital Filing System

Now that you know how we utilize Adobe Scan to digitize our bills, receipts + other important documents, let’s talk about how to create continuity between your physical filing system and your digital home filing system.

Luckily, this isn’t as hard as it sounds because you’ve already done the preliminary work of identifying + creating all of your sub-categories under “Personal” + “Property.” 

Let’s assume you’re working predominantly with a physical filing system. 

What you want to do is duplicate every folder you have in your physical filing system and create those exact same folders in your digital system so that both systems align in naming + hierarchy. 

In other words, the filing system you use physically has a digital counterpart. Now, you’re not going to file something digitally + then also physically but we want the two filing systems to speak to one another in the way you’re accustomed to seeing them.

This allows you to digitally file all your recurring monthly bills (the bills you pushed into paperless billing — i.e. mortgage statements) but also have folders in the event something was incredibly important + could not be digital. 

Interested in more? You’ll love a beginners guide to important documents!

Like I promised… easy as pie, friend! 

While creating a home filing system isn’t hard it can be overwhelming + time consuming especially if you want things done right + you’re simply unsure how to go about them. 

Certainly, it takes more time than we hope, lots of energy + sometimes even a bit of elbow grease to get it done but cross our hearts, that if you use the Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan Home Filing System you will not only fall head over heels in love with having your entire home filing system organized but it’s scaleable + actually works — no matter what challenge you think is in the way.

It’s such an incredibly rewarding process to declutter + get organized because you’re able to finally enjoy your home with no paper sitting around on the surfaces. #OhTheFeeling

And guess what boo, if you’re feeling a bit like a floundering fish out of water know that we’re here to lend you a helping hand,  let’s chat.

P.S. If you loved this article then you’re going to really enjoy the4 Days To A More Beautiful + Functional Home.