Drowning in papers!

Oh my god! I am so so so bad at doing the paperwork things. I mentioned jokingly but honestly, that I don't open letters if they look scary and yes Fifi I too have been alerted to the fact I've not paid a bill by the absence of that particular service....

"Why can't I make a phone call? What is it May already??!!???"

I have just spent three days turning the house upside down looking for the car registration papers due to be paid on the 25th of May. I just found them in my handbag! I have yet to develop a system that works for me. I am feeling cross at myself for not being a bit more 'together' when it comes to this sort of thing.

My mum was a bank teller and then manager. At one stage she had a business called 'Get Sorted' where she designed systems for businesses and individuals. She came to stay with me and the kids for 8 weeks before she went traveling and gave it her best shot with us. As Bantam Boy (8 at the time said) we won, she was defeated. Her home and finances are run in an extremely organized fashion books balanced, checked off double checked, bills paid and recorded and double checked! Beds made and dishes done before anything else.

I just don't get it especially with the papers. It is just that it seems so unimportant most of the time and there are many more pressing things to be done.... all excuses for my failings! Ok, here is a confession... I actually don't know what you are supposed to keep and what not to keep. I find it tedious and confusing. So I keep rubbish and loose the important stuff. I also find it causes so much anxiety with the regularity of the bills and worry about how I am going to keep up, that I put them to one side and pretend they don't exist. I have had a week where the consequences of my inaction and disorganization are coming back to haunt me.

I have made up several systems all of which fail... I resort back to a system which is not unlike Bernard Black (for anyone familiar with Black Books.) It goes like this , here are the receipts for this week and these ones are for ... all other times. What's more they are not contained to one space but scattered in handbags, drawers and files and folders!!!!

I have to find a system that works and I have to bite the bullet and just do the tasks I hate. I suppose I'm not that bad really, I've managed to run a household on my own fairly successfully for 14 years. It is just that anyone with accounting tendencies would have a conniption! And a little more attention to papers when they arrive would probably save angst in the long run!