Organizing the important stuff

You know how you set out to accomplish a single, simple goal, like, "book a dental appointment," and then 2 hours later you've reorganized your entire household binder of important papers??

I had one of those super-efficient mornings. I needed to make a dentist appointment for Ryan now that he's finally on our dental plan and before I did, though, I wanted to review our policy details. After working in healthcare for 13 years, I knew better than to assume that every visit is covered. I wanted to make sure (best I could) that there aren't certain exclusions since Ryan is only 2.5 years old and this is his first visit.

The plan summary document is pretty straight forward, so I think I'm OK, but there's still a chance that the dentist will bill some totally obscure code that'll get rejected as "not medically necessary." That's just how things work.

Anyway, as I pulled out the documents to review, I started finding other paperwork that needed to be filed. Then I remembered that during MOPS last month, we made a Household Binder in which to organize important papers. Then I remembered that I found a ton of filing folders, binder clips, and tabbed folders in the guest bedroom recently. Then I remembered we recently opened a safety deposit box at a local bank and it's totally empty.

Organizing the household paperwork

Our Household Binder

Inside of Household Binder

One thing led to another which led to another and two hours later, I'm pretty well organized on the paperwork front :) And, I have some legal papers (Healthcare power of attorney, which, BTW, is DIFFERENT than the regular Power of Attorney) to put into our safety deposit box.

Our HealthCare Power of Attorney

Next fall, I'm the Assistant Coordinator of MOPS, so I need to start pulling things together now. I'm heading to Office Max later today (I could LIVE in that store) to grab an organizer or binder for the MOPS stuff. Many of the tabbed file folders I didn't use this AM will be put to good use for MOPS.

In addition to the binder, I also have a crate which I use for other major filings (taxes, retirement paperwork, car paperwork, work done on the house):

Something I'd like to be better at is saving (in one place) important receipts. You'd think that as much as I enjoy organizing that I'd already have that one down, but I don't. When we make a major purchase, I have every intention of storing the receipt in an important place. The problem is that I have approximately 539,205 important places for receipts! I have a folder in this crate for receipts (and ones to hold for 6 months), but I'm not great about actually putting receipts in there.

Later today, I'm taking Ryan to his first movie at the theater! We're going to see Wreck It Ralph with some friends. I'm hoping that Ryan sees how well the other kids behave and will model their behavior during the film. *Fingers Crossed!*

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE MONDAYS!