Could you find your documents in the dark and still with your eyes closed? No? So it's time to learn how to organize your documents.
You may never have stopped to think about the importance that such an organization can make in your life. But she does. With organized documents, you save time (since you won't have to spend hours looking for paper), space (because you concentrate everything in one place) and even money. That's right!
Did you know that lost or poorly preserved documents can make you spend on fees, duplicates and even fines?
Yeah! So let's get over there in this mess and learn how to organize the documents in a simple, practical and effective way, follow:
Organizing documents: essential tips
Search the whole house
The first phase of organizing documents is to search the entire house for papers, vouchers, slips and whatever else you find ahead. Don't throw anything away for now, just collect.
Select, save and delete
Then find a quiet place and take the time just to review each of the papers you have at home. Take a careful look at each of these papers and start separating them into categories such as paid bills, accounts payable, personal documents, house documents, car documents and so on.
Papers such as advertisements, invitations and folders, for example, can be thrown away without fear. So you already eliminate a good part of the pile.
Provide folders (and labels)
After everything separate, provide folders and labels to facilitate the viewing of documents and to speed up the search for specific documents.
Have folders labeled for each thing: accounts payable, bills paid, personal documents, insurance, proof of payment, manuals, invoices and guarantees.
Recalling that nowadays it is possible to find manuals of various electronic devices on the internet. Therefore, you do not have to keep all of them. But pay attention to a detail: if you are going to discard the manual, make sure you have saved the product invoice, ok? They are two different things.
For each person, a folder
It is also important that each person in the household has their own folder. In it, organize the personal documents of each one, such as RG, CPF, voter registration, work card, vaccination card, passport, certificates and diplomas, payslips and medical examinations.
Scan
Another way to optimize the organization of documents is by choosing to digitize the papers. Nowadays there are applications that allow you to photograph the documents and then convert them to PDF, making it easier to view and send them to others if necessary. A good example of such applications is CamScanner.
You can also choose to receive bills and slips by email, drastically reducing the paper stack. In that case, remember to create folders on your computer and save each document in the specific location.
An advantage of scanning important documents is that you can assign a password to each of them, keeping them more secure than printed documents that anyone can access.
Stages of document organization
There are basically four categories of document organization. They are: inbox, active file, archive and permanent file. Understand each of them below and learn how to use them in your day to day:
Inbox
The inbox is where you will put the papers you just received. This prevents them from spreading around the house. So that ticket that just arrived, the car bill and the water bill must go straight to the inbox.
But it's not to leave the papers molding in the box, okay? Screen it periodically and assign each document to its respective place.
The inbox can be a simple cardboard box or even those two-story correspondence boxes sold in stationery. The important thing is that it is in an easily accessible place.
Active file
The active file is everything related to the last year and the current year, including paid bills, invoices and manuals.
In other words, everything that you may probably need and therefore should be stored within easy reach.
The active file can be made in folders with labeled dividers.
Dead file
The archive is the place to keep payment receipts from previous years, that is, everything that has already been paid and does not belong to the year in question.
To reduce paperwork a good tip is to choose to save only the annual debt settlement. By law, all service providers, such as the electricity, water and telephone companies must send their customers by May, a receipt confirming the payment of all debts from the previous year. That is, twelve less papers for you to keep.
Permanent archive
The permanent file is the one that cannot be thrown away. Never ever! This is the case of real estate deeds, wills, INSS booklets, certificates (birth, marriage, death, among others).
Create a folder just for that specific category of documents. To make viewing easier, you can even create subcategories such as "home", "car" and "personal", for example.
How long to keep documents?
You have already understood all the dynamics of document organization, but how do you know what to keep and what can be thrown away? And what we're going to talk about now, follow:
1 month
Save for a month:
- Purchase receipts;
- Deposit receipts;
1 year
Keep the following documents in your file for one year:
- Bank statements;
- Credit card statements;
- Life, car, home insurance policies (provided they are only valid for one year);
- Health checks. After six months, most tests are no longer valid and, therefore, your doctor will most likely order new tests, but it is worth saving in case of any continuous treatment or for the simple comparison effect. For the case of continuous treatments, the recommendation is to keep the exams stored for the duration of the treatment.
5 years
The documents that must be kept for a period of five years are:
- Taxes such as Income Tax, IPTU and IPVA;
- Water, electricity, telephone and gas bills;
- Proof of rental payment;
- Proof of condominium payment;
- Proof of payment of school tuition;
- Proof of credit card payment;
- Electoral receipts;
- Payslips and paychecks;
- Receipts for medical assistance and health insurance;
- Receipts from professionals like accountant, architect and lawyer, for example.
For all life
The documents you should never throw away are:
- Personal documents (RG, CPF, voter registration, work card, passport, reservist certificate);
- Deed of the house and purchase and sale contracts;
- Document of purchase and sale of the car (as long as it remains with the good);
- Invoices and manuals must be kept until you dispose of the item;
- INSS booklets.
Keep organization
Nothing is more obvious than after all this work to organize the documents you maintain that organization. For this, we also separated some tips, check out:
- Discard all correspondence that is irrelevant and will only take up space.
- Whenever you receive something new, create the discipline of forwarding directly to your inbox. And after sending everything there, file the papers in their respective folders.
- Annually review the papers that are filed and what can be thrown away, throw it. This prevents the accumulation of new documents.
- Whenever you can, choose to scan the documents. In the same way, start opting for the electronic receipt of correspondence and payment slips, such as electricity, telephone, cable TV, credit card bill, among others.
Now just shake off your laziness and start the task of organizing documents. Come on?
