The Dreaded Purge

By: Claire Keeling
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:41:52
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Bill and Mary have been married for 32 years. Bill does most of the bill paying for their household. Bill has his own system for bills that need to be paid, and for bills that have been paid. Mary has tried to learn his system, but thinks it’s confusing. It’s a cold Saturday morning in the middle of February and they are prepared to attempt to do the annual file cabinet purge. Neither one of them are looking forward to it, which is not anything new. They make it their New Year’s resolution every year to get their papers in order, and somehow, it just hasn’t happened yet. They both head downstairs after a lingering breakfast and head toward their storage area where the four drawer filing cabinet resides. Bill opens the top drawer, and has to pull hard because it is stuck. As usual, they have too many papers, and not enough space for filing. Already, he is frustrated and wonders how long this will take. Maybe next weekend would be better…….

Does any of this sound familiar? How many of you look forward to the annual paper purge? How many of you actually do it annually? How many have ever even done it? Our paper problems can represent a source of pain, resentment and denial. Our filing hang-ups can also represent a lot of unfinished business and is typically pretty draining.

I don’t know about you, but they did not offer any classes in elementary school, middle school, or high school about basic organizing techniques let alone dealing with paper or paper management. I was not taught the art of filing and keeping it up. I knew of people who had the just right “Trapper Keeper” (I’m aware that I am dating myself with that comment), and looked like they had their act together when it came to looking organized, and probably concluded that their parents must be organized. Many of our clients call us and apologize for the state of their house, office, and differing levels of disorganization. They explain that they are embarrassed that they can’t do it themselves and feel like they have to call and ask for help. The funny thing is that if I was going to add some landscaping to my house, I would absolutely have to call and get help for that project since I would have no idea where to begin. That is not my area of expertise and I would have to pay people to complete that task. The same is true for organizing. Unless our parents/family members/babysitters were paper management experts, we either learned a basic paper and filing system from our parents or friends, or even college roommates, or we didn’t learn anything at all. The point is, we probably were not taught this skill in any of our years of education.

Now, I’m not going to assume that you even have a filing cabinet at your house. I will assume that everyone has at some point, filed something. According to Hemphill Productivity Institute, “80% of papers that are filed are never referenced again.” If that’s true, it seems very important to know exactly what papers need to be filed, and what papers we can get rid of. Our product pick is the FreedomFiler. It is a remarkable product because it aids you in knowing what to keep and what to get rid of.

Before I begin sharing some brief information on the FreedomFiler, I need to tell you what it will not do. It will not file papers for you, it will not remind you when things need to be filed, and it will not supply you with chocolate to make the whole process more fun (ok, I’m craving chocolate as I’m writing this.) What it will do is promise to be the only self-purging file system available. Once you take the time to set up the FreedomFiler, you won’t have to ever take time to clear out or reorganize your filing system again. “Filing paper in most cases will be almost as easy as dropping it in the trash”, quotes Seth Odam, creator of the FreedomFiler.

So, what’s so important about this system? There are two main principles of the FreedomFiler:

1. Guarantees you’ll never accumulate paper again.

2. Eliminates annual purges and saves hours in your future time.

Most people set up their files so that things are filed together because they sound alike, but this system encourages you to file based on the longevity of the paper you are filing (short-term vs. long-term). The FreedomFiler comes with seven categories that are easy to set up and use because of the labeling system.

Paper is undoubtedly a drain on our brains. There is a light at the end of the filing tunnel with the emergence of the FreedomFiler. It has revolutionized our thinking about filing and given us hope that filing can be simple and quick once the right system has been set into place. © 2006 All Rights Reserved.

Article source: Expert Articles