Nine Steps to Organize Your File Cabinet

Almost everybody hates to do filing. It’s not the sheer boredom of the task that makes it so awful, it’s the agony of facing all those pieces of paper that require your Solomon-like wisdom: Keep this or throw it away? If I keep it, where should I file it? If I file it, how will I know how to find it again?

Creating a well-organized place for your files will make the job more bearable, and may help establish a regular filing session before paperwork builds up to an overwhelming pile.

1. Purchase a filing cabinet. Tucking bills, receipts, insurance policies, and other vital paperwork into a drawer here and a shoebox there leads from disorganization to chaos. Bite the bullet and buy a good-quality suspension file cabinet that allows drawers to be pulled out to their full length. This way you can see and reach every folder comfortably—no small thing when you’re trying to work quickly and efficiently.

2. File alphabetically. The two most commonly used filing systems are organization by category (Financial, Legal, Personal, etc.) and organization by alphabetical listing. Professional organizer Barbara Hemphill, author of Taming the Paper Tiger, makes a very good case for the alphabetical system: “There are always gray areas when you begin categorizing. In filing everything strictly by the alphabet, there is no question of where to look.” File related documents under the letter of the “umbrella” subject—“T” for Travel, for example—so you’ll never have to wonder where to look for what you need. Here are a few examples of this method:

• File under “C” for Car: Maintenance records, owner’s manual, warranties, copies of registration documents.

• File under “I” for Insurance: Auto, home, health, life, and other policies, each with a separate folder naming the type of policy. (You won’t look for your car insurance policy in the “Car” file because you know all your policies are in the “Insurance” file.)

• File under “S” for Safe Deposit Box: A list of the box’s contents. You can also use this file as a storage area for documents you plan to take to the box the next time you go to the bank. You might even keep the key in this file.

• File under “R” for Restaurant: Any restaurant reviews you want to keep, plus a list of friends’ recommendations and restaurant phone numbers. This is just an illustration, of course. If restaurants aren’t your passion, maybe you’d create a file under “S” for software reviews, or under “G” for information on golf courses around the world, or articles about gardening. In any case, name the file according to the specific topic. A folder called “Hobbies” or “Special Interests” will quickly become crowded and disorganized.

3. Create subfiles. Making separate files for categories within categories (Insurance, Auto; Taxes, 1999; Travel, Australia) will keep your file folders from becoming fat and unwieldy. It will also make it easier to keep the information within each folder organized and easy to get to.

4. Block out an afternoon. Setting aside three or four hours will keep you from giving in to distractions and abandoning the job before you’ve made significant progress. It’s also good for morale when you know there’s an end in sight. If you aren’t able to finish the job in the first session (and few people will be), set another date with your files in the near future.

5. Give yourself elbow room. Whether you’re starting from scratch or reorganizing an existing filing cabinet, do the sorting on a floor or large tabletop where you can spread out without crowding.

6. Sort. This is the part most people dread. But when you’ve already determined that every item will be filed according to its individual name, deciding which paper goes where will be a less burdensome chore. Print the name of each file and its subcategories on separate index cards and tape them down to help you quickly spot the stack where each document belongs.

7. Weed. You will be amazed at the amount of Jurassic paperwork you unearth: instructions and warranties for products you no longer own; expired grocery coupons, brochures for products that no longer interest you; business cards from . . . who was that guy?; multiple catalogs from the same company. Toss what you don’t need.

8. Label. This is a no-brainer. Simply write a file folder label corresponding to those index cards you used for sorting (by this time you will have worked most of the kinks out of the system and decided exactly what you’ll call each file). Use your best printing and a sharp pen, so your labels will be easy to read and won’t smear or rub off.

9. File! Transfer your piles of paper into the labeled folders and put them into the drawers in alphabetical order.

Use hanging file folders with plastic stand-up tabs rather than manila folders, which can slide down in the drawer and easily become dog-eared. If your filing cabinet doesn’t have metal frames for hanging folders, they are easy to find at most office supply stores.