Filing cabinet VS Arch Binders

triciaho

Registered
Hi all,

First time poster here. I've been attempting to GTD for a while now with mixed success.

The area I'm struggling with now is organising offline reference materials. I've always been filing all my household documents (ie bills, statements, certificates etc) in arch binders and it has been working well.

However, I'm at a loss on how to organise materials like publications (ie journals, magazines, annual reports etc), non-document stuff (ie medals/trophies, samples, swatch sets, kits etc). DA suggests using filing cabinets which I don't own and am scared to take the leap!
  • Has anyone used arch binders for organsing their reference materials?
  • Is possible to have two filing systems - filing cabinet and arch binders?
  • Has anyone transitioned from arch binders to filing cabinets?
Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I should also mention that I use Evernote to organise my online reference materials, and that's working great!

Thanks in advance,
Trish
 

@Newbie

Registered
I am not very experienced with GTD yet, still figuring out my system myself, bu i have to say the change i made from arch binders to a filing cabinet is one that i am very happy with for mostly the reason that i can keep a lot more in my filing cabinet. Like things you shouldn't put holes in, diploma's, foreign currency etc. I tried using binders with those plastic covers in them, but that did not work at all for me as they sagged down and made the whole binder to difficult to handle. another perk i find is that in a filing cabinet your categories can grow without having to move everything from the next letters over to a next binder (eg, your b category has grown quite a lot and you find you need to move everything from c on to a next binder.). In a filing cabinet you just shove another folder in there and you're done.
I have a cabinet with two rows of folders next to each other so that it doesn't take up too much space, the (financial) leap wasn't too great either, as i used the dutch equivalent of craigslist to find it.

Hope this helps!
 

Oogiem

Registered
triciaho said:
  • Has anyone used arch binders for organsing their reference materials?
  • Is possible to have two filing systems - filing cabinet and arch binders?
  • Has anyone transitioned from arch binders to filing cabinets?
Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

If you mean a transition from ring binders to filing cabinet and folders early on I had both systems in use. I've always had a filing cabinet so that was always an option but at one time I thought it would be faster/more convenient to use ring binders for some classes of things. I have long since changed my tune. It's so much less expensive to add folders to a cabinet vs more binders. Shelf space is at a premium and I can fit a lot more stuff into a filing cabinet compared to a shelf of binders. It's a lot easier to file small things or things that you don't want to punch holes in using file folders and if I have things that might fall out I can get pocket folders. For example the rabies tags for our dogs are in pocket file folders one for each dog. Due to their job I cannot have the tags on them as they could come off so this way they are readily accessible but can't fall out into the file cabinet.

The only binder I still have is the one that holds the sheep registration papers. Each registration certificate is in a clear plastic protective sheet so I don't have to punch holes in it. That's because I need to handle and view the papers a lot and needed them protected from dirt and fingerprints and getting wrinkled or damaged in any way. Right now I have my binder of sheep papers on my desk getting ready to do a sort for breeding. I need to view the papers to see the pedigrees and family relationships before deciding which ewes will be mated with which rams. As soon as I do that and get the sort entered into my LambTracker system all the papers will go back into the binder and into the file cabinet. I treat the binder like a very large file folder.

I'd suggest buying a high quality file cabinet and switching.

Instead of using 3 tab file folders (the standard) get the one tab position ones. Not the ones with a single tab that runs the length of the folder but 3 tab cut but only get a single tab position style. My preference is for the left tab. It's a lot easier to read down a list of file folder names when they are all in line and for me it's also better for retrieval.

Get and use a label maker of some sort. No matter how good your handwriting a label maker really improves the access of your files.

When you are setting the system up initially get a roll of removable scotch tape and write the file folder names on that. Put them into the file cabinet in strict alphabetical order. Sort all your files into those "temporary" folders. After the initial sorting then go back and create the file folder names you ended up with using the label maker. I found that I started out with categories that I then didn't remember so I had to change how I filed stuff. It was a lot easier to and less expensive to do it before I created the label maker labels.

Avoid 2 level label names unless they really make sense to you. I've always thought that way so for me having things labeled Sheep-Disease, Sheep- Breeding 2015, Sheep-Breeding 2016 makes sense but I understand that I am in the minority that way. Try without using that unless you really are sure you will remember the categories. For example I do not use Car-Insurance because I never think if it like that but I will use Insurance-Car because that is how I look for it. If I need to access information on insurance I first think of insurance then the specifics (house, car, farm). If you've been using Evernote for electronic filing and have a system that works for you then using the same type of system for your physical files makes sense.
 

triciaho

Registered
@Newbie said:
I am not very experienced with GTD yet, still figuring out my system myself, bu i have to say the change i made from arch binders to a filing cabinet is one that i am very happy with for mostly the reason that i can keep a lot more in my filing cabinet. Like things you shouldn't put holes in, diploma's, foreign currency etc. I tried using binders with those plastic covers in them, but that did not work at all for me as they sagged down and made the whole binder to difficult to handle. another perk i find is that in a filing cabinet your categories can grow without having to move everything from the next letters over to a next binder (eg, your b category has grown quite a lot and you find you need to move everything from c on to a next binder.). In a filing cabinet you just shove another folder in there and you're done.
I have a cabinet with two rows of folders next to each other so that it doesn't take up too much space, the (financial) leap wasn't too great either, as i used the dutch equivalent of craigslist to find it.

Hope this helps!

Thanks @Newbie! That's exactly where I'm at right now. I've collected some small travel maps which I would like to keep for future references but have no idea how to store them. Like you, I've tried putting them in plastic sleeves but they sag so badly. It's very comforting to hear someone making the transition and is happy with it! :)
 

triciaho

Registered
It's so much less expensive to add folders to a cabinet vs more binders. Shelf space is at a premium and I can fit a lot more stuff into a filing cabinet compared to a shelf of binders.

That is such a fantastic point! I've never thought about that before! Experience truly is a wonderful thing. :) And the use of the "temporary" filing system is a great tip. I can imagine stressing over the naming the folders to try to make them work the first time round.

I'm curious how you would organise things like utility bills? Are they filed loosely in a chronological order or just randomly? What I do like the arch binder is if i drop it accidentally, the papers don't scatter everywhere. Any suggestions how to guard against this with the folder system?

And by the way, I totally love what you do! So intrigued by your sheep rearing business - that is so awesome!
 

Oogiem

Registered
triciaho said:
I'm curious how you would organise things like utility bills? Are they filed loosely in a chronological order or just randomly? What I do like the arch binder is if i drop it accidentally, the papers don't scatter everywhere. Any suggestions how to guard against this with the folder system?

Most of my utility bills come as paperless e-statements. They are filed in my electronic file cabinet in a single layer of folders. I use filenames to indicate the dates. So I'l have a file like 2016-09-05_Sprint_Bill.pdf which is the September cell phone bill. It lives in a folder called Sprint in the folder Filing_Cabinet.
Those things that come on paper I usually scan and then file electronically. I try to keep the paper files to things that are necessary to keep as paper (sheep registration certificates, federal flock inspection forms for example) or that I update all the time (Grazing maps) or that are not available as electronic files or that I can't easily scan. When I embarked on the massive scan and store electronically I started with over 20 bankers boxes of files. I am STILL working on the total reorganization of my electronic filing system but the end is near. Only a few more folders to process and I've been keeping up with electronic file maint. as I've been working on the backlog.

One example of the hybrid system is bank statements. They come as paper and I keep them all in a file folder during the year. In January as part of the year end cleanup I scan all of them and then shred the paper originals. Then the folder is empty and ready for the next year's paper statements.

As to scattered papers, if a folder is more than a half inch of paper I need to figure out how to split it up into a finer category. Keeping the folders not too full means it's less likely to spill and even if it does it's no big deal to scoop up the papers and put them back.
 
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