It never would have occurred to me to purchase software to track my garden. Like you, I find an Excel spreadsheet to be a versatile tool for tracking the information that interests me, and a simple Word document, or file of documents, can contain any quirky info not suitable for a spreadsheet. In addition to the computer-drawn plan, I have a large-scale printout of my new garden plan with a 10' by 10' grid for a visual record of the location of specimens. The grid coordinates go into the spreadsheet, and my husband swears he's going to give me GPS coordinates for the plants. : ) I once had a paper garden journal, but my entries were very sporadic so the result is incomplete, and the journal lacked any organization beyond calendar dates, not very useful for the type of data you are keeping. These days I type far better than I write, such has been my evolution...

It's very common and desirable to mat a print up to the mat line....well actually about 1/2 an inch from that line. Rather than take a chance of nessing up the water coloring...I would mat the print. But I might gently try a steam iron on the wrong side....I might! I think I need to go to your thrift stores!! Linda C

Hello Mystique, This is my first post, though I've lurked off and on for a few years. I've managed the paperwork for my parents, for the family farm, and for myself for many years. It's sometimes been overwhelming so I've come up with a few strategies to minimize the stress. For family personal expenses, I have a file for bills paid by a certain checking account, with the oldest bill on the bottom, the last on top. Once, I attempted to keep different folders for different types of expenses even if paid by a single account: Big mistake for me. So easy to misfile and so hard to reconcile at the end of the year. For me, it's been much easier to just have one folder per account per time period. I do take one extra step though. I am careful to notate my check register, and I input the information into a spreadsheet later on. That way, I can sort it by check number, type of expense, date, or any other criteria. I don't make online payments, but the same principle would apply. If it gets drawn out of checking, I'd list it in the spreadsheet. And I compare it all with the bank statements. At the end of the year, I double check it, and then e-mail it to a tax preparer and he determines tax consequences, if any. Excel has an auto-fill feature, that makes this data entry easier than it sounds. If you do it this way, it's easy to find a record of a payment, without handling the paper too much. Another reason I try to keep the folders of paid bills uncomplicated and chronological is that these have an expiration dates. Having things scattered about will make record destruction more of an ordeal. So in answer to your question about a credit card statement being with school stuff, I wouldn't do that. I'd keep it in a the file with all the other bills you paid with that checking account, including medical. Otherwise, what would you do when a credit card statement reflects both a school loan, medical bill and an appliance? Contemplating such an issue might make you put it in some "to decide later" file, instead of putting it in a very simple place like your "paid bills" folder right away. Besides, most billing issues in my experience have to do with claims that a check did not arrive, not that a credit card company didn't pay. And most of these issues turn up within a month or two of payment which is another reason chronological filing works well for bills. The whole point of a filing system is so that you can find things as painlessly as possible. With the register inputted into the computer, you will even know how much of the loan you've paid off in a certain period, without touching the paper repeatedly. But you can also find papers quickly if the loan company year end statement doesn't match your record of payments. For appliances, my father had a trick of marking appliances with a purchase date in the back. If it breaks down, you know where to find the bill in the "paid bills" folders. (I think the idea of putting it with the manual is a great idea, but I haven't tried it.) I don't pick and choose what to keep and what to destroy as far as paid bills go. I save all the statements with check numbers and dates written on them....but only for a certain amount of time. For paid off loans, as others strongly recommend, I'd keep the letter that states that the loan is paid off, and the statement that releases any collateral, in a folder called "loans (paid off.)" For my mother's Explanation of Benefits papers, because of the volume, I have a folder per year, in chronological order. (But no bills live here. Those are with all the other paid bills.) It's a record of doctor visits and prescriptions. This type of stuff seems overwhelming, but is not so bad, if it's chronological, pruned of unnecessary newsletters and old booklets, and living in clean, p-touch labeled folders. But I don't think EOBs have a tax consequence. The bills and the health premiums are what might matter, and those I keep with all the other bills. I consider EOB and prescription records only a type of medical history. I choose to keep them so I can tell how long my mother's been taking a medication, when she had a certain procedure done, etc. Your filing system is your personal creation. It doesn't have to conform to any of these ideas, only to the way that you think. I hope this is helpful.

Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different.