A new filing system is in order. I'm in dire need of a personal assistant to manage my finances, my life, relationships. I use to keep file folders in which I could store my bills in order by merchant name. DWP, Gas, Pacific Bell, etc.
I began to see a pattern forming when laziness in filing prompted a small change. I combined bills for DWP, Gas to be filed in a single folder labeles "Utilites". When the credit card statements started to pile up, I made a similar change. My alphabetical order system wasn't cutting it as I had my Auto Club Visa filed in the A's, My B of A Visa filed in the B's, My Discover card in the Ds, My Chase Card in the the D's (for Disney), and my Citibank Master Card in the M's. Who would blame me for not wanted to go into that filing system. I literally had to finger thru each file to find the proper place for my statements. I encompassed all my credit cards to be filed under C for credit card. Child file folders are then placed inside the parent hanging folder with labels like Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express to keep them all together. The distinguishing factor is the last few digits in the account number.
I don't know if this idea will work. The pile of bills have only moved from my desktop to my bedroom where they continue to float from bed to chair to laundry hamper to ironing board, and back to bed. My next solution to the procrastination of filing will be, since expiration dates usually last several years anyway, to limit use of one card for all my transactions for the length of a year, after which I would alternate to another card. Anything to reduce this paper mess.