Hi, everyone. I'm Alejandra from Alejandra.TV. And in this video, I'm going to show you how
to organize or how I organize my files in my filing cabinet.
But first, if you're looking to get organized you can check out my free video series on
my website, Alejandra.TV. The link is below.
OK. So one of the biggest problems I see with organizing your files in filing cabinet is
the filing cabinet is so jam-packed with so many papers like papers are just like hanging
out and stuff and you can't find anything because you haven't purged your filing cabinet
in so long. And your labels are misleading in your filing cabinet. So, I'm going to show
you how I've avoided that problem and how my filing cabinet is super organized, things
are easy to find and I just have exactly what I need and nothing more.
OK. So, this is my whole filing cabinet. There is a shelf and then there is the filing cabinet.
So let me just quickly show you what's on top here and then we'll get to the filing
cabinet.
So up here, I have my printer. So my printer is away from my desk because I feel like there
is like no good place to put the printer on the desk. So, what I've done here is the printer
is plugged in but the actual cord, the USB cable that connects to the computer, hangs
out up here in this little cord organizer right here. So it's out of the way. So whenever
I need to print, I just come here and I literally just grab the cord and I plug it in and it's
like, I just print, it's so easy. So that just like hangs out up here. I'm just going
to put that back.
OK. Then I have like two pictures of Mojo and Ed and I, to kind of like personalize
my office a bit and just make it me since I spend so much time here.
All right. So the books up here, so one of the questions I get is, "Why do you color
code your books?" So honestly, it looks beautiful in my opinion. It's not very functional. In
fact, it's like not functional at all unless you know the color of the spine of the book
you need which like most people don't. But it just looks nice. And I'm not really accessing
my books that often so it's not really a big deal if it's not very functional.
All right. So the binder is down here. So I love these binders. These are the better
binders from Staples. They come in all colors and all different types and sizes and stuff.
I'm actually going to do a better binder video coming up soon.
So, what I do here is I try and color code the binder with like the category. So for
example, the Christmas binder is green because Christmas is red and green. And then the recipe
binder is yellow because I think of yellow when I think of the kitchen. But some of the
other ones are not color coded by category because I reuse the binders over and over
and it's hard to maintain that way. So yeah, the binders are there.
All right, so moving down to the filing cabinet. And actually, let me say one more thing before
we move on. One of the questions I get is what's the difference between putting your
papers in binders versus putting the papers in the filing cabinet? And really, to me,
I feel like it's a personal preference. I put my frequently accessed papers in binders
because I feel like it's easier to grab a binder and find a piece of paper as opposed
to reach into the filing cabinet find a file and grab a piece of paper. So, things that
are accessed more frequently in binders, less frequently, in the filing cabinet.
And then also, I kind of break it up into personal and business. So, all my binders
are mostly business-related papers. And then the whole filing cabinet is all personal-related
papers.
All right. So let me show you exactly what my filing cabinet looks like. OK. So this
is my filing cabinet. So everything is labeled files, files, files, files because it's all
files. All right. So, this is it. I'm like so excited to share this because I just feel
like it looks so beautiful and all the colors pop and everything is just like so organized.
So, let me just quickly run through and show you what I do here. So first off, I use all
letter-size folders instead of the legal size. For me, like I have a few documents that are
legal-sized documents but I don't want to set up a whole legal system and waste space
if the majority of the papers are letter. So I just don't keep legal papers in here.
They are kept somewhere else.
All right. So let me just go through and tell you what all these colors mean. So red is
all of my permanent files. So it's things that I'm never going to throw away like in
my entire life. Like never touch, never throw this out.
And then orange is things that are temporary. So there are papers that are coming in and
then there are going out and being replaced with more updated papers. Like your health
insurance policy, every year you get a new policy or you get an updated policy. You take
the old one out and put the new one in. That's orange.
Green over here is all of my financial-related papers. So anything related to money goes
in green.
And then light blue, it's like tax documents throughout the year. So like -- it's like
tax papers you collect during the year and then give to your accountant in the New Year
or use when you're filing your own taxes. So that goes in there.
Purple, in purple I just keep all these labels like these labels come in a sheet of -- they
come in sheets like this. And you kind of just like pick whatever label you are looking
for. So, I just keep all the extra labels right here in the filing cabinet. So when
I do need to out a folder, the maintenance of creating that folder is super easy. All
things you need are right here. It's not like you're running somewhere else to out a folder
because when you do that, it doesn't necessarily like get done. And then you get behind. So
everything is right here.
All right. And then brown back here is all of Ed's real estate papers so we recently
combined our filing cabinets so he has the whole brown section for all these like real
estate documents.
OK. And then what I've done is I've used white hanging file folders to kind of like make
the colors on the file tabs pop a little bit more. What I used to do is I used to color
code the folders also. So like all the red section would have red hanging file folders.
So this is a hanging file folder. This would all be red. But I made a mistake of doing
that and realized that the maintenance was like so difficult with that. And I changed
them all to white to make it easier.
So my biggest lesson learned is don't color code you folders , only color code the tabs
and it's a lot easier that way.
OK. So, that's what I do. And then what I do is take a white binder clip to kind of
clip the folder together just like that for some of the folders that are thicker with
a lot of papers, just because it kind of contains the papers more when they're clipped together.
Now, another question I get a lot of times is what is the difference between an interior
file folder and a hanging file folder? So, this is an interior file folder and this is
a hanging file folder. Now, what a lot of people do is they put these interior file
folders inside the hanging file folder and you have this sitting in your filing cabinet.
Now, there is nothing wrong with that. There's like -- there is not really a right way to
file. I don't do that because I don't like these tabs sticking out because I feel like
it covers the other tabs in the filing cabinet. And then I also feel like when there are so
many folders inside, if like so many papers inside, the folder gets too full and it's
too jammed and papers don't fit nicely inside. So I don't do that but it doesn't mean you
don't have to do that. You can do that.
Instead, I just don't use these at all in my filing cabinet. And then I just create
separate hanging file folders for each category. So for example, like health records, this
is like my health record folder. And then this is Ed's health record folder. So it's
two separate folders just like that. And then I just put like my initials and his initials
right there so I know whose folder is whose.
OK. So that's the filing cabinet. Now, when I was setting this up, I realized that I have
like space on the sides right here. So I was like, "OK, maybe I'll just put things that
I need to create other folders when it's time for maintenance."
So, I found these nice bins that just like fit so beautifully in the side of the cabinet.
And this is where I have all of my extra tabs for the file folders. I have a lot of extra
ones just because of like when I was going to people's homes and helping them organize
their filing cabinet I always had supplies on hand. So this kind of just like hangs out
on the side right here just fits so perfectly. And then this one over here is the same thing.
I have more labels and then I have a bag of the binder clips just like that for clipping
the folders together.
OK. So, as you can see, everything is organized, it's color-coded. You can find what you're
looking for like very fast. And nothing else is in the way. And so the last tip for you
is to go through and periodically purge your filing cabinet. Go through the folders, pull
out things you don't need anymore, shred them, archive them if you do need them but go through
it and make sure you're only keeping things that you really need to keep.
So, is there something that I didn't share that you do in your filing cabinet that's
really helpful for keeping it tidy and organized? If so, leave a comment below. Or if this is
your first time watching my organizing videos, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel or
check out my website, Alejandra.TV for more tips on getting organized.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you soon. Bye.