First
Aid for Your Filing System
Say the word
organize to the average person and beads of perspiration
suddenly appear along his or her brow. Thoughts of
organizing and filing can induce elevated blood pressure
levels and stress in an otherwise calm individual. Family
historians purposely compound their organizing dilemmas by
bringing extra paperwork into their homes. Without a
methodical filing system, home and genealogical paperwork
quickly get out of control.
First aid for your filing system
has arrived. Join me weekly for tips and secrets that will
help you take bite-sized chunks out of your filing woes.
There's no time like the present, so let's get started.
Conquer the
incoming mail
If you want to take charge of your filing system, the
place to start is with the daily mail. Break the habit of
bringing in the mail and dumping it in the usual pile.
Instead, make a decision about each piece of mail as you
touch it.
- Have a large wastebasket, a recycle
bin, and a personal shredder within reach as you make
your decisions. While the waste basket and recycle bin
may be obvious, many people don't yet realize the value
of owning a personal shredder. Consider the fact that as
soon as you place your trash on the street, anyone can
riffle through it and remove the financial and other
private materials that you throw away. This is where a
lot of fraud begins. To protect yourself and your
family, shred any throw-away papers that contain your
name and address together and anything with important
numbers such as bank and credit account information.
- Any junk mail that doesn't
have your name and address on it should be recycled,
if possible, or thrown away.
- If you're not in the mood to
shop, recycle the new catalogs so they don't
accumulate-you'll get another catalog in another week
or two. Don't forget to shred your address on the back
of the catalog as well as the one on the order form.
- Put bills in a place
designated for bills waiting to be paid. Throw away
the envelope they come in, as well as the extraneous
advertising materials that accompany the bill.
- Designate a mail location for
each person in the household and divvy out the mail
right away.
- Remaining items that must be
kept for some future action or for reference should be
placed in your "inbox" as a temporary
resting place until you have time to take action or
put the papers in their final resting place.
- Make sure and designate a
specific location for all of your genealogy
correspondence. If you don't, it's possible that you
will lose potentially valuable research information in
the mail shuffle.
Conquering your mail won't happen
in a day. It's a process that takes discipline, but as you
don't see piles accumulate each day, you'll feel a strong
sense of accomplishment that will encourage you to conquer
other organizing problems.
Elizabeth Kelley
Kerstens, CGRS,
is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing,
editor of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’
newsletter OnBoard, the creator of Clooz—the
electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, and a
frequent contributor to Ancestry. She can be
reached via e-mail at liz@ancestordetective.com.
