ORGANIZING & PAYING BILLS   By Gayle Bochow Professional Organizer We all hate to do it. We delay for as long as we can. We know that they are there, waiting for us in the entryway, on the kitchen countertop or in that overflowing tray in our home office - monthly bills. We want to keep them organized and stay on top of what is due and when, but where do we start? Gather all the mail together, clear a space on the floor and start sorting. Your sorting technique is key to eliminating unnecessary paper. Open every bill and trash the extraneous junk sent along with it. You know, the offer for Cubic Zirconia earrings that are Yours Free! Toss the envelope, open the bill completely and paper clip the payment envelope to the bill. First, find the utility bills. Paying the Gas Company, DWP, cable/satellite TV and phone bills are essential if you want to keep everything in your house turned on. Next, seperate credit card statements, car payments, medical bills, legal bills, subscription invoices and all other correspondence asking for your money, into individual piles. As you sort, highlight the Minimum Amount Due and Payment Due Date or Statement Date with a highlighter.	Your categories may look something like this: - AUTO - CREDIT - HOMEOWNER'S ASSOCIATION - LEGAL - MEDICAL - SUBSCRIPTIONS - UTILITIES To prepare your bills for filing, you will need: a lable maker, manila interior files, hanging files and clear slanted hanging file tabs. Buy assorted colored hanging files and either use all the same color for monthly bills or file each category in a different color and start repeating after five colors. Seperation by color makes it easier on the eye to find what you are looking for. Use the label maker to name each file. Attach a clear slanted tab to the top of the hanging file and fill the tab with the same name as that on the interior file. File alphabetically in the following manner. For example, MERCEDES PAYMENT would be filed under AUTO. File CAPITAL ONE MC ... 4321 / 2008 under CREDIT. Including the last four digits of the card / year is the easiest way to label credit card bills. Place each file of the same category directly in back of the last tab and fan each category out alphabetically. If you have misplaced or not received your most current bill, call and verify your balance, available credit, minimum due and by when. Use a PAID stamp to document the date paid, amount paid and check number on the remaining stub. Keep this portion of the bill until the next one arrives. Organize, simplify and try to pay bills twice a month.
Toss older bills in a "To Shred" pile (unless you need them for tax purposes) and keep only the most recent statement. Use Post-It notes to write out the various categories that have emerged from your diligent sorting and stick them on the top of each pile.