• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to header navigation
  • Skip to footer navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Display Search Bar
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Facebook Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Twitter Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Pinterest Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Instagram Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on YouTube Follow 5 Minutes For Mom via RSS

5 Minutes for Mom

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Course
      • Breakfast and Brunch
      • Snack
      • Lunch
      • Appetizer
      • Dinner
      • Dessert
    • Ingredient
      • Apple
      • Beef
      • Blueberry
      • Chicken
      • Chocolate
      • Cranberry
      • Peach
      • Pumpkin
      • Squash
      • Strawberry
      • Tomato
      • Vegetables
      • Zucchini
    • Method
      • Air Fryer
      • Baking
      • Grilling
      • Instant Pot
      • No Bake
      • One Dish
      • Slow Cooker
    • Type
      • Breads and Rolls
      • Cakes and Muffins
      • Condiments
      • Cookies and Bars
      • Drinks
      • Food for Kids
      • Gluten-Free
      • Main Dish
      • Pies and Crisps
      • Salads
      • Sandwiches and Wraps
      • Side Dishes
      • Smoothies
      • Soup
  • Crafts & DIY
    • Crafts
    • DIY
    • Kids Crafts
    • Printables
    • Scrapbooking
    • Sewing
  • Family Life
    • Giveaways
    • Lifestyle
    • Marriage
    • Motherhood
    • Parenting
    • Pet Care
    • Special Needs
    • Time Management
    • Travel
  • Holidays
    • New Year’s
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Mother’s Day
    • Fourth of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas

Organizing Paperwork with Tickler Files

March 13, 2012 by Lolli

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

ShareTweetPinPocketMail

I am so excited to welcome April from Power of Moms, who has an amazing Tackle project to share PLUS a giveaway (scroll down for the giveaway details. 75 of you will win!).

Just about every mom I know has something on the kitchen counter called “the pile.” You’ve surely seen one.

It’s generally stocked full of receipts, original art work, birthday party invitations, advertisements, coupons, and the like, and if you’re one of the lucky moms sporting a counter pile, you’ve certainly plowed through it on numerous occasions – looking for that community holiday flier or the reminder card from the dentist office.

Ring a bell?

Today I’m going to show you a trick that virtually eliminates the time-sensitive items from your counter pile. It’s called a Tickler File, and you can have yours set up in minutes. Quite honestly, it will change your paper-sorting life.

How to Set Up Your Tickler File:

  • Get 12 file folders and label them by month.
  • Put your Tickler in an easy-to-access location.
  • A small file box, a little stacking tray, or the very front of your filing cabinet are great spots for your Tickler. It doesn’t need to be out in plain sight–you just don’t want to forget where you put it.

Reference paperwork with a “Tickler Symbol” on your calendar.

Whenever you receive a piece of paper that needs to be accessed or used during a specific month (examples below), reference the accompanying action or event on your calendar and add a little T with a circle around it–indicating that the paper you’ll need on that date is in your Tickler. If you use a digital calendar, you could use parentheses: (T).

Then simply place those time-sensitive papers in the appropriate month’s folder.

Sound easy? It is. Now let’s practice:

1. Smog Check Form

It’s October 10th, and your husband hands you a form from the Department of Motor Vehicles, indicating that your registration this year requires a smog check. The smog check can be done during October or November, but the registration is due on December 12th.

What on earth do you do?

Normally, we’d just stick something like that in “the pile” and hope we remember to get that smog check done in time. And then in January, when we get pulled over by a police officer who’s wondering why our car hasn’t been registered, we plead, “I’m sorry, but have you seen my kitchen counter? I’ll get it done today . . . I promise!”

(We’re not going to do that anymore.)

Instead, we’ll write the registration deadline on our calendar (so we’ll see it coming), and we’ll add “Get a smog check” to the “Errands” section of our context-based list.

We could even add a calendar trigger sometime in November that asks, “Did you get your smog check yet?” (Just in case . . . because we all know how motherhood can throw us into a whirlwind sometimes.)

Next to each of those reminders, we add our cute circled “T” (and since this particular sheet of paper might be in three different folders, we note the month beside it–as you can see in the photo above).

When the day comes to take the car in to get checked, we calmly walk to our October Tickler, take out the smog check form that needs to be signed, and happily cross that task off our list.

Lovely, isn’t it?

Here’s another example:

2. Wedding Invitation

Your dear friend from college is getting married on June 22nd, and she sends you a beautiful invitation, complete with a map to the wedding and reception. You need a safe place to keep this invitation, so you don’t end up texting the bride for directions to her wedding the morning of.

You simply note the wedding on your June calendar and put your “T” symbol right next to it, indicating that any related paperwork can be found within the folder for the month of the wedding.

Are you starting to get excited?

Let’s do one more . . .

3. Concert Tickets

You and your best friends from high school are going to a concert in the city on August 3rd, and everyone buys their tickets when they go on sale in late May. You’ve got more than two months before the event, and you don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute, so you print your tickets online and put them in your August Tickler, noting the concert and your Tickler symbol on your calendar.

Get Rid of the Paper Pile Forever

This Tickler idea is so simple, but I never thought of it until I read David Allen’s best-seller, Getting Things Done. He recommends a Tickler consisting of 43 files, 12 for the months, 31 for the days (that cycles and is checked daily), but as a mom who is spinning in several different directions each morning (brushing hair, tying shoes, cleaning up breakfast . . .), I like to simplify the number of things I need to check before I start my day.

Twelve files kept in a safe place and one calendar I check daily has taken loads of stress off my plate. Now, when my daughter comes to me in June and hands me a form for the school orchestra that doesn’t need to be turned in until September, I don’t even break a sweat.

Our family now has a place for the book order form that’s due in two weeks. We can always find the addresses to birthday parties, and I can easily group papers that need to accompany me on a plane trip.

When we consistently use our Tickler files, we won’t cringe every time we look at that pile on our kitchen counter. In fact, by implementing a few simple organization techniques, we can get to the point where “the pile” won’t even exist.

 

QUESTION: Do you have a great tip for keeping your kitchen counters clear?

CHALLENGE: Join me on my quest to “clear the counters of the America” (and the world!) and create your own Tickler File.
 

This guest tackle was written by April from Power of Moms.

ShareTweetPinPocketMail
Conceptrol Review
Wordless Wednesday — Mom, Is That Jesus???

Reader Interactions


Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

7 Comments

  1. Darci from STEMmom says

    March 19, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    Yes, great idea! I’ll put it in my pile of “things to do!” Ha, just kidding. As I sit here and look at the pile that is so obviously a universal issue, I am struck with a determination to use the 12 month file system to clean off my counter! Thanks so much!

    Reply
  2. SoCoMom 4James says

    March 14, 2012 at 2:02 am

    Tickler files are a great idea. I am trying to get my kitchen piles under control. Using a portable accordion bills folder really helps me sort and tame the pile. Makes it easier to find things & ultimately use/file/recycle them.

    Reply
  3. ConnieFoggles says

    March 13, 2012 at 8:09 pm

    Were you peeking in my house? There’s piles of papers everywhere!

    Reply
    • Lolli says

      March 14, 2012 at 10:39 am

      That has always been a weakness of mine as well. I thought the same thing! lol

      Reply
  4. Deirdre says

    March 13, 2012 at 10:04 am

    This is a great idea and virtually free!

    Reply
  5. Susie's Homemade says

    March 13, 2012 at 7:52 am

    Great tips! I do something similar but it hangs on the frig:-) Makes life a lot eaiser!!!

    Reply
  6. Susan says

    March 13, 2012 at 1:46 am

    Brilliant system. I MUST do this!!!

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

Bringing Moms Together

We are Janice and Susan, twin bloggers and work-at-home moms. We're here to inspire, encourage & empower you.

Meet Us…

Work With Us…

Subscribe via Email

to be first to read new posts

Trending Now

Raspberry Coulis – How To Make Raspberry Sauce

Raspberry Coulis – How To Make Raspberry Sauce

Among Us Costumes – How To Make Pretty DIY Among Us Cosplay Outfits

Among Us Costumes – How To Make Pretty DIY Among Us Cosplay Outfits

Oven Roasted Potatoes and Peppers Recipe

Oven Roasted Potatoes and Peppers Recipe

Instant Pot Apple Crisp that is Ready in Minutes!

Instant Pot Apple Crisp that is Ready in Minutes!

browse around

  • Posts by Susan
  • Posts by Janice
  • Favorite Recipes
  • Favorite Crafts
  • Giveaways
  • All Posts

Footer

Recipes

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe and History

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe and History

25 Awesome Rainbow and Green St. Patrick’s Day Treats

25 Awesome Rainbow and Green St. Patrick’s Day Treats

Easy Valentine Sugar Cookies

Easy Valentine Sugar Cookies

Crafts/DIY

DIY Flower Press – How To Press Flowers

DIY Flower Press – How To Press Flowers

Valentine’s Day Crafts For Kids – Super Cute and Easy Valentine Craft Ideas

Valentine’s Day Crafts For Kids – Super Cute and Easy Valentine Craft Ideas

Animal Ears – How to Make an Easy No Sew Animal Ears Headband

Animal Ears – How to Make an Easy No Sew Animal Ears Headband

Giveaways

Valentine’s Day Gifts For Mom

Valentine’s Day Gifts For Mom

School Supplies List and Back to School Shopping Guide

School Supplies List and Back to School Shopping Guide

REDEEMING LOVE Set to Strike Gold on the Big Screen #RedeemingLoveMovie

REDEEMING LOVE Set to Strike Gold on the Big Screen #RedeemingLoveMovie

Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Facebook Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Twitter Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Pinterest Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Instagram Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on YouTube Follow 5 Minutes For Mom via RSS
  • About
  • Contact
  • Work with Us
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2023 5 Minutes for MomTheme by Melissa Rose Design and Once Coupled