The Secret Sauce to Creating a Paper Filing System That Works

Do you have a filing system for your papers? Whether you do or don’t, I found the secret sauce to creating a filing system that works.

Here’s what I mean.

You receive lots of different types of papers, right? Mail, bills, legal documents, school papers, artwork …so many different types of paper!

Just like you would place different types of items in different places around your home (i.e. blocks in the block bin, knives in the knife block, socks in the sock drawer, etc), the different types of papers should have a different place to go.

I call these paper hubs.

A paper hub is where a paper is stored, either temporarily or long-term, based on the type of paper it is.

Why is this the secret sauce? Because it takes the indecisiveness out of where a paper should go. Instead of receiving a paper and leaving it in a growing pile on the kitchen counter, you know exactly which paper hub to store your papers.

This is a micro way of looking at the #1 rule of organizing …everything has a home.

To use help you put this filing system secret sauce into action, here are some examples of paper hubs you could have.

Long-Term Paper 

Papers with information you need to reference but don’t necessarily need on a day-to-day basis are part of a long-term paper hub. These are easy to figure out because they’re typically papers such as tax documents, medical records, financial records, personal and family documents, auto, and property documents. 

Just don’t go crazy trying to file everything in this paper hub. Definitely use this 4 question test to determine if a paper should go in this storage.

Kids’ Paper 

If you have kids, you know they bring home and create a TON of paper. (Actually, literally tons of paper.) Storing these papers in a specific place will keep them from taking over the house.

And trust me, it’s easy for them to take over the house.

Having a separate hub makes it easier to declutter the kids’ papers later. Just don’t wait years to do it!

Papers for the To-Do List

Any types of papers that require you to do something with them (pay a bill, call somebody, sign and send, etc) should go in their own hub.

This keeps all those important papers together in one place so you don’t have to search for them. I teach clients and students to use an Actionable Paper Hub.

Because that’s really stressful and no fun.

This hub can go in a Command Center or wherever it is you choose to work on all those types of tasks.

Hubs are totally the secret sauce to creating a system that works! These are just a few types of hubs in a paper filing system.

If you don’t know how to sort your papers into the right file, download my free Paper Organizing Cheatsheet so you know exactly where to put your papers.