Organize Pictures and Papers

Papers and pictures need special care and once lost, are difficult if not impossible to replace. For this reason, I feel compelled to devote an entire chapter on this subject.

I have lost many important papers over my lifetime due to not being organized. Many of these documents were able to be replaced, such as birth certificates, social security cards and marriage certificates. But this also caused me a great deal of stress and I had to pay for them to be replaced. Some papers are lost for good because they were not recorded instruments and merely letters of agreement. Some things I wanted to keep are gone because I errantly threw them away or lost them somehow. I can give you a list of the many papers that I lost due to disorganization, but I think you get the idea.

Pictures are usually irreplaceable, at least the older ones that were not downloaded to a computer and are not on some flash drive. Pictures are often all we have of a memory, except what is in our minds. Who doesn’t like looking through old photographs and reminiscing?
The secret to making sure that you do not lose pictures and papers is to keep them in a place where you know where they are and, if possible in the case of pictures, in some sort of album. If you have always wanted to make a scrapbook and have a bunch of loose pictures lying around all over the place, gather them up and put them in boxes that are labelled and store them for future use. You can purchase boxes that are made for this purpose or just shoeboxes. Make sure that the boxes are clearly labelled and that the pictures are all stored in a dry, dark place.

One item that may help you organize both pictures and papers is a portable filing cabinet. You can purchase these at any office supply store and get folders as well as file separators to help you organize everything. This way, at least you know where everything is and you can get to it when you need it.