I keep the financial records for the two organizations I am treasurer of. You know - bank statements, paid bills, end of the year reports, paperwork and returns filed with Internal Revenue and our state, whatever is required by the organization’s parent organization, etc. I have one file drawer set aside for both of the organizations. I have a metal piece which is suppose to go at the back of the files in a drawer to hold them to the front that I put between the two sets of files to keep them separated.
Do to the fact that I have personal files, business files (for our 3 small businesses) and both of these organizations files in my file cabinets I use color file labels. I use red and blue labels for my embroidery chapter’s files (and also in another drawer for our personal files) and yellow and green labels for our reenactment unit (and also, in yet another drawer, our craft business files). I use the blue or green for permanent files and the red or yellow for annual files.
Huh? Well, there are files which I will clear out each year - last year’s bank statements for example - these files get a red or yellow file label - depending on whose file it is. Other files - such as government filings, copies of the meeting handouts or the treasurer’s reports - my embroidery chapter is required to keep those forever - do not get cleared out annually and basically just accumulate info in them these get blue or green labels and I know when I go through and clear out the folders for the prior year not to bother with these files.
While I am fairly good at clearing out our personal and business files every year, the organization files tend to just sit there and fill up. They are not a high priority to go through and are in the bottom drawer of their file cabinet, so I need to sit on the floor to deal with them, etc. Well, the drawer had become too full to use. We had gotten rid of a lot of our reenacting files to the new “commander” when he took over from husband, but there was/is still a lot of stuff in the file drawer.
Last week I had a bit of time somehow and decided to go through the embroidery chapter files. I found out that I had last cleared out the 2012 files. I need to keep by the chapter’s national organization 7 years of financial records - except for those I need to keep forever. (I will find out from them if I can scan these items into the computer and keep them that way when I get a chance.) I have 2 large manila envelope boxes (I love these boxes they hold so much) in my closet with the prior years files for the chapter that I kept. These go back to the prior treasurer.
I went through the boxes. While for our personal files I keep 9 years prior to the current year (making 10 years all together), I am only required to keep 7 years, so I pulled the records before 2007 - I kept 2007 and later. I went through the paperwork from each year that I was getting rid of. I shredded the bank statements and other related bank items. If I saw something I thought I should keep, I did - less than 10 papers. I then shredded everything else. I relabeled the folders and sorted 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 files of the files which should be cleared each year. I stored these in the emptied box and then put the boxes back in the top of the office closet.
Okay, it was not that simple. Particularly the putting away part - the boxes would not fit back into the space they came out of in the closet. The two boxes stand on one side, one in front of the other to the right side of the door. I tried putting in the front box and then the rear box - rear box did not fit. I took them out and tried putting in the rear box - front box would not fit. I tried shifting items around - maybe they loosened up or shifted - a plastic box fell on my head. I put that aside and tried again - the lid from another box fell on my head (more about this lid later). I finally managed to get both boxes back in - the end of a brief case had to be moved - and then get the box and the unrelated lid back in where they belong.
I was too exhausted at this time plus free time had run out to deal with the reenacting unit papers. The reenacting unit has much more paper and files in the drawer than the embroidery chapter did. The embroidery chapter files had been behind the reenacting unit files - but I had so much room in the drawer and so few of them were now from the embroidery chapter, that I now reversed it so that the reenacting unit files were to the back - or I would never see the embroidery chapter files again. Amazing what just moving out the 4 years paperwork made in the room in the drawer.
The reenactment unit actually has it’s own file drawers at our headquarters. In the upstairs hall (under the edge of the teddy bear Christmas village - yes it is still out) there are an assortment of old papers for the reenactment unit which I pulled out several years ago to take to the headquarters and store there. I need to go through them again and see what still needs or should be kept and then go through the files in the “current” drawer and deal with them. I needed to give my poor paper shredder a rest and then I will do so.
The box lid - I have had for years (decades?) a box for computer CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks. , actually I have a number of boxes - this one is being mentioned specifically here. This box holds the various system disks for the various computers we have as well as for other equipment - printers, scanners, wifi, etc. It is a long box and the lid used to be attached on one end and lift - even a lock (who knows where the key is so it is not locked) to lock it closed for security. A few years ago this box fell on the floor. The lid broke off the box and further broke so there was just a large piece of it over the disks - hence why the lid fell off onto my head. On and off I have looked for a replacement box. This accident spurred me to look further. I found a nice box that has handles which snap closed on the end (to keep the lid in place) and bought it - less than $5. I was not sure if all the disks would fit in - they did with spare room and the box was tall enough that I could transfer them with the dividers I had been using. Much safer storage for the disks and my head. Know what I did with the old box? I threw it out - no holding on to it to see what else it can be used for. I actually needed the box of disks today. We had a problem with our wifi modem and husband was hoping the installation disk would resolve the problem. I took the box down and handed him the disk. It did not help, but there it was - found in an instant.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Sometimes less than an hour’s work can make a huge difference in space for storage. What seemed like a huge job went quickly. Just watch out for (and replace) broken box lids falling on your head . :-)
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