Starting a File System

You've thought about it for awhile now. You've seen the advertisements for filing cabinets and varying organizing gizmos. The only thing holding you back is knowing you have to sort through all your paperwork.
"Where should I begin?" you ask yourself. The way I figured out logical categories for my filing cabinet was by looking at the bills I pay every month. Here is a sample of items I pay every month:
Cable
Car Payment
Rent
Water
Electric
Student Loans
Gym membership
Phone
Savings
You may have some of these same bills every month or you may have something slightly different. Just looking at this list, you can see that there is paper associated with each item. This is the beginning of your file system.
Notice I made my list generic. I actually pay my bill to Comcast, but my file is called "Cable". The reason for this is because if I move and my service provider changes to Cox Communication, then I don't need to change my file name.
Take a piece of paper and write down all the bills you pay. Don't worry about getting fancy file folders yet. You can do that once you have a file framework. Instead use any folder you have available like a manila folder and put the name on the folder.
If you have papers lying on your desk, pick each item up and slip the paper into the corresponding folder. You may have serveral cable or electric bills on your desk and it's now just a matter of putting them in the folder.
Spend time going through each paper. Okay, you are probably asking yourself "I have all these random papers that have nothing to do with the categories I wrote on my notepad, now what?"
Take a quick look at each paper (less than 30 seconds) and decide if you should toss/recycle/shred or if it deserves another category. You may have picked up an Explanation of Benefit(EOB) statement that your health insurance provider sent you from your recent blood text. Don't worry about reading the content and taking action just yet, but decide on a category like Medical.
Continue to do this with each paper until you start to see similar patterns where similar papers belong with other papers. Remember to pile these papers together and write down the categories on your notepad.
This whole process can take hours or days. You can have tons of paper. Whatever you do, don't get discouraged. If you come to a piece of paper where you are unsure what to do, toss it into an "Unsure" pile and make sure to LABEL IT!
Once your filing framework begins to take shape, you can move the folders to a filing cabinet or shelf while you shop for the perfect storage solution for your filing solution. You will have all your categories written on your notepad so when you go to the office supply store, you will know how many file folders you need and the approximate size of the storage unit needed.
This is a fresh start to your new organized life!