The last time I saw that car title...

[Greg44]

The last time I saw that car title, I thought - this isn't the best place to keep a title, but I don't have a better place for now...

Crap, now I am selling my dead and dieing pickup tonight and I can't find either titles to our vehicles! I pride myself in being an organized person - or at least striving to be organized.

My finance files are always up to date, easy to find most anything to do with our household finances. But our other household files are a mess. Every year when it comes to "girls' camp" and they want to know when our dd's last tetnus shot was - I panic.

Instructions to home electronics - hmm could be in one of several places and mixed in with the paperwork from our first microwave we ever bought - and have long since gotten rid off. Or with the paperwork from the 15 irons we have bought in our 30 years of marriage (I tend to send irons off the side of the ironing board and them catch them with the cord and pull back like I just caught a big salmon)!

Hmm my dw must have them! I could blame my disorganization on her :devil:

[goldensmom]

My employment entailed tons of paperwork so I had to be super organized. Everything was filed in an expansion classification folder and categorized. I follow through with that in the home. Okay, that car title. Folder titled ‘Vehicles’. Each vehicle has a section that starts with purchase papers on the bottom, then maintenance and repair papers by date and on the top is the ‘vehicle title‘. I can tell you the history of the vehicle by that file. And those appliance or tool manuals … in a file by category with the sales receipt and warranty information stapled to the manual. When you get rid of an appliance or tool, toss the old manual. Etc., etc., etc.. So easy. I do the same thing you do with the iron and haven't lost one yet.

Don’t blame your wife, I know she didn’t do it.

[reader99]

My files include one labelled "car", which contains the title, repair receipts and recent insurance bills and documentation.

[Greg44]

...I did find them in MY WIFE's file of important documents - birth/marriage certificates/etc...but I think I put them there!

It really boils down to needing to sit down and purge our old files, so we organize the stuff of value. Time is the key to make this happen...

I will have to make it a priority - hmm along with painting the house, rebuilding the shedd doors, shampooing the carpets, replacing the side garage door, painting dd bedroom, etc. *sigh*

[JaneV2.0]

I use my mother's filing system, which involves remembering which geographical pile I put it in, and which archaeological level it occupies. The system works reasonably well; I just this week unearthed a wallet card certificate of live birth within a half hour or so of realizing it wasn't in my wallet. Turns out I had to order a new one anyway. I'm trying to train myself to use more labeled files and boxes, but it goes against the grain.

[loosechickens]

May my mother, who taught at one time at the Washington School for Secretaries in Washington D.C. when young, RIP.

She taught me how to set up an easily maintained filing system, and I can put my fingers on any piece of paper I would ever want in the world in about ten seconds......no more than one minute at the most. It has saved me from shredded nerves, emergencies, etc., literally hundreds of times in my life......"thank you, Mom".

[JaneV2.0]

I have to say, in defense of my mother's system, that the actual excavation took only a minute or so--not warp speed like Loosechickens, but good enough for me. Organizing continues.

[loosechickens]

well, I'm probably exaggerating, JaneV2.0......."a minute or so" is probably more accurate for me, too. I open the file, pick out the proper folder, open it and I might have to sift through some papers to reach the chronological timeframe I'm looking for, although in the case of things like car titles, they would be right in the front of the vechicle file, with the file copy of the registration, and copies of the insurance card, insurance policy, etc.

[Wildflower]

After not being able to locate a car title many years ago, we started putting them in with our other very important papers under lock and key. Learned our lesson. ;)

[Zoe Girl]

Oh I lose everything and consider myself really organized. The big difference I made was getting a small safe and putting them essential documents into it. Birth certificates, social security numbers, car titles and registration and most recently I put in ALL documents for traffic tickets and payments!! We have some issues with traffic tickets and a missed court date for a minor child.

My other great idea is that I have ONE BOX for all the cords and chargers for every electronic device we have EVER owned. It is crappy to try and use an older camera and not find the charging cord or the one that talks to the computer. And I learned my lession when I tried to use an older phone with my cell phone plan to replace a broken phone and I had no charging code and they didn't even make the right kind of charger plug any more.

And I hear you about putting it on the major list of things that are urgent to get done. My list is so long that if I died I would be called back to finish a few tasks.

[creaker]

A place for everything and everything in its place? So easy to say, so hard to do.

I've found it really important to weed and prune and declutter papers fairly often - when there are too many things and too many places, I get lost.