Nurtured Paths Tips - (Organizing) (Coaching) (Intuitive Reading)

8. Examples: Do you rip articles out of
magazines or pictures from catalogs?
On this first round, you could simply put
all of these in one pile or if you primarily
have decorating and health articles you
could have two separate categories, but
no more at this point. Do you have EOBs
(explanation of benefits) for every member
of your family, separate medical invoices
and the name and number of a doctor
that your friend gave you? Put these all
in the same "medical" pile at first.

9. IMPORTANT: approximately 15 to 20 minutes before you planned on ending, it is time to actually pack up. You do not want to lose all your hard work, by pets deciding to create a new bed out of the "finance" pile or by having someone you live with be "helpful" and put the papers in
a closet somewhere. Grab those gallon size plastic bags. These piles will probably be huge, so if you need multiple bags for "medical" that's fine. Simply divide the pile up, write on separate adhesive notes "medical", and stick one note inside each "medical" bag. Do this for each of your piles. The "house" pile may be two bags, "finance" may be four bags, simply do the same process for all the groups of paper that you made today. Put all these bags in one container (crate, box, etc.). Save those sheets of paper with the category names and put them in the same box with all the bags. You are done for today!

10. When you are able to come back to this project, grab a snack and drink and turn on the music. Lay out those sheets of paper that say House, Medical, etc., and do the same process as before (see #8). Before you know it all of your papers will be in labeled bags.

1. Gather up all your paper (yes, receipts in bags, mail in boxes, etc.). Do not worry at all about the contents and details on each piece of paper. Try to have it all in one room in a corner on a table or extra bed.

2. I have done this with clients who have a 6 month backlog and with clients who are downsizing or moving and have a 9 and 10 year backlog, so this approach can work in a wide variety of situations.

3. Have available (to start) 2 or 3 boxes of gallon size plastic bags, adhesive notes, and a dark colored felt-tip pen. Put on some music, have a snack and drink nearby! Initially, plan on doing this for only 2 maybe 3 hours at a stretch.

4. No matter how much paper you are dealing with, decide ahead of time on approximately 7 to 10 BROAD categories you are going to use.
Most people have Finance, House, Medical, Employment, School, Appliance/Manuals, Pets, Receipts, Catalogs/Magazines, and Coupons. You will have your own particular subjects, as these are just suggestions and fairly common for most people.

5. You will be handling the same piece of paper several times, which may not sound efficient, but you will not have to linger over it forever, lose your steam and become stuck in the entire process. The trick in organizing large amounts of paper is to keep moving and to set up a system in which you can easily go back and forth.

6. Write down, in big letters, your categories on separate pieces of letter-size paper. Spread them out on your work surface - waist level is best if you have this kind of area, or you can adapt this to any floor space. I've done this in hallways, as well.

7. Swoop down on any of your piles, and grab a handful. This is not the time to make perfect decisions! Usually going with your first reaction as to where a particular piece goes is the correct choice! Just aim for being consistent.

11. After everything is in labeled bags, take all papers out of one category of bags (e.g., "House"), spread them out and make subcategories that work for you - at this stage of the process, you may have 5, 10, or 15 different subcategories (e.g., "mortgage", "appliances", etc.). You also can have "House - mortgage" or "House - appliance", whatever is best for you.

12. Decide what you want to keep or toss at this stage. If you are not sure what you are legally obligated to keep, see the IRS publication - Record Keeping For Individuals www.irs.gov/pub/p552/index.html
As in the previous step (#8), make a bag and label for EACH pile. After "House" is done, you are done for the day!

13. Do this for all your Broad Categories. Most people end up having between 75 and 130 separate subcategory bags. After all the bags are made, put them in alphabetical order. They will be slippery (so have a sense of humor). Have the same number of files and label tabs as bags (and about 10 extra for expansion), place the contents of each bag in a file folder, and hang them in your filing cabinet. You are done!!