Setting Up a Filing System in a Foreign Country
I expected to change a lot of my habits when we moved to Europe. Filing wasn’t one of them. I thought I’d share with you after we talked about getting control of our paperwork yesterday because it’s pretty interesting trying to learn how to file all over again.
My first challenge is the language.
So that’s pretty obvious. My German isn’t good enough to understand the difference between papers worth keeping or not. I have to ask Martin to do the final steps in my filing, otherwise I could be throwing away one of those crazy Clearing House Sweepstakes and have no idea. We Could Be Rich!
My second challenge is the system.
I’m used to filing folders in big drawers like this:
I biked to McPaper for filing supplies. It’s Germany’s version of an office chain store like Staples is to the US, except it’s like the size of the Staples bathroom. The hanging files and manilla folders that I was used to filing with were in the back of the store. They cost around a buck each. Huh? My filing system came to a screeching halt. There was no way I was going to spend that much money. Like a kid to ice cream, I followed everyone else in the store and gave in to the local system.
I bought a couple of huge binders and clear protective sheets to start building our own German filing system like this one:
Do you ever find yourself stumbling with the world’s most mundane tasks, too?
February 25th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Well, I’m glad there was an affordable solutions after all. I don’t even remember how I did it back in Czech. I probably just threw out everything :o)
February 25th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I’ve never thought about not being able to read the mail before – wow, what a challenge. I struggle with filing *and* I have a filing cabinet, so I have no excuses! You came up with a great solution, though. Great job!
February 25th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I like your system and I LOVE your shelves. Very similar to ones we have in our living room. Great minds think alike. Like Ms. Tee I’d never thought about not being able to read the mail! You are living such an amazing adventure!! I have a stack to file right now…guess I should get on that!
February 25th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I do NOT like th German version of filing. It’s weird. And time consuming. Back when I worked for the U of Maryland Europe some offices used the US filing system and some used the European filing system. It was incredibly time consuming and confusing (especially when you were expecting it to be one way and it turns out you had to go back and redo it the other way).
Also, the European way is ugly. You can find cute filing cabinets (or cover them with pretty paper and modge podge), but those books are just ugly. Even if you covered them, I don’t think they’d be pretty.
BTW, I’m still avoiding the paper in my house. It’s too much! The stack of shredding I have to do alone is scary.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
LOL!!! Those damn binders and clear plastic sleeves were the death of me when I lived there! I never felt like I was truly organized.
February 25th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I just couldn’t make it without my filing system! I am glad you worked out a system that works for you there.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Ah the terrible German filing system. I have to admit that when we moved over here, I brought a nice two drawer legal filing cabinet with me (which was thankfully full of extra folders since they have nothing in legal size here either and I just love them.) After almost 7 years, I’ve managed to hang on to it and keep enough space in the cabinet for stuff we need on a regular basis. I did have to file away a bunch of the “keep 10 years” junk but it’s up in the attic now.
The only thing I converted on was the bank statements…and about the time I started using their silly little tiny binder, my bank started sending statements on full sheets of paper. Go figure.
Why do they have to start everything with Mc over here? McFit used to be the name of the gym we went to…you have a McPaper. Is that some sort of indication that it’s supposed to be cheap & quick – like McDonalds? Very strange :)
February 26th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Every now and then the LIDL (at least the Dutch stores) have a little hanging file folder set. I really really hate the binders and sheet protector method, it’s so inefficient!
March 1st, 2009 at 10:07 am
I know exactly what you are going through. When we moved to Czech I wanted to bring my prize filing cabinet. My husband said we don’t need it. When we got to Czech and started to settle into our new house it became a problem not having the filing cabinet. I ended up putting our bills that we paid in an old shoe box. This drove me crazy because I’m a very organized person. But, it showed me that even though I didn’t have my fancy cherry wood cabinet the shoe box did the same job! It made me a greener person and I’m happy I had this experience.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Hi katie, this post was really interesting to read. I am a German living in America and I had the opposite experience :-) I am so used to my neatly looking binders and now I have to organize an office completely run on hanging and manilla folder that overflow easily and where paper seem to crumble constantly :-) it’s also funny that when I went to buy binders here in the US I found those prices outrageous :-)
But everything has been a wonderful experience!
Best wishes
Andrea
January 6th, 2011 at 3:30 am
I’m struggling with the German filing system right now, as I’m trying to declutter our stuff and set up a system that works. Sigh. For now I’ve decided to forego the plastic sleeves for anything but important stuff and I just punch holes in paper and stick ‘em in. Though I guess in a sense I understand why they want the binders since a file cabinet is just another piece of furniture we don’t have room for here. And I’ve invested a bit in the pretty binders with flowers and stuff on them. LOL. :-)
February 5th, 2012 at 1:12 am
About 15 years ago I decided it would be easier to keep up with things like banking and bill statements if they were in binders, and my husband loved it, so we’ve been doing it ever since. We even set up a binder for each year’s tax prep stuff to give to the accountant (annoyingly complex tax laws mean that we gather all the info and do the sums, but make sure the accountant keeps us from paying more than we should).
Binders – especially hanging binders – are great for storing things like group directories that are usually bound with plastic and no spine label…your own, personal directory….your password book…your calendar, if you like to print them off of something like Outlook in a regular 8.5 x 11″ format.
Using binders for filing has definite pros and cons…
it slows down the filing process, but speeds up the retrieval process because everything is put in the proper order instead of accidentally getting stuck into a folder in a random position
Drop a hanging folder and you’ll have all the pieces inside flying – unless you fasten them all to the folder. Drop a binder, and you have a chance of the rings staying together, keeping your carefully organized papers in their proper spot.
They are accessible on the shelf, but they can’t be archived in a regular file cabinet or regular file box because of their size – and cardboard binder boxes are not cheap.
The Hanging binder is a cool hybrid option, but the ones I have found are too narrow to fully cover any dividers one wants to use….and all 5 kinds of filing drawers that I have are too shallow to allow any hanging binder to glide easily if it has dividers in it
Binders just aren’t as flexible a tool as a hanging folder or pocket hanging folder – hanging pocket folders are a great place to keep things like installation cd’s, extra cords and instruction manuals for things like cameras, phones, computers, printers, mp3 players, etc. Binders would be a LESS accessible option for that sort of application.
After reading your article I looked online for other articles about how people use binders for filing….and with the exception of a few pieces on coupon binders and household binders and Flylady’s famous Control Journal, there just isn’t a whole lot out there on binders – and none on serioiusly filing with binders. Congrats on blogging on this almost untouched topic!