Organizing Your Family’s Important Documents
Organize Your Family’s Important Documents
Gathering your family’s most important documents and organizing them to have peace of mind is crucial to making your family function well. Make a note of when certain documents expire and keep it in the front of your binder or file. A good place to put it is in the table of contents page. Look to The Uncluttered Life’s Declutter Deck® for tips and tricks about home organization.
Organization
Organizing your most important family documents helps you quickly locate what you need and when you need it. It also gives you peace of mind knowing that your documents are safe and secure. It will be much easier to find everything you need in an emergency or when required, for example, at school.
There are a few ways to organize important documents. Several include a binder, an expandable file, or a file cabinet. I prefer to keep everything in a metal file so that it is sturdy and can be transported easily.
The supplies required for organizing documents are a binder, sheet protector with flaps, page dividers and tabs, important documents and extra paper for a table of contents.
Color coding categories on the table of contents makes finding important documents easier.
Action Steps
Gather the following important documents as they apply to you and any others in your family. These include birth certificates, adoption papers, passports, Social Security cards, tax documents, important financial information, medical information, vehicle information, and the deed to your property. This is not an exhaustive list.
Set up categories in your binder. You can organize by family member or by category. I prefer to organize by category, since I will know that they are all together and able to immediately identify if things are missing.
Create a table of contents by listing categories. Then include which documents are in each category.
Store your binder in the safest place you can to protect your personal information. Also, it may be a good idea to store the binder in a fire and water-proof safe.