At Your Fingertips!: A Household Filing System That Works for You

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Dale and Bradley are concerned for the organizationally challenged among
us who persist in misplacing important papers, waste time looking for
documents we’ve put away for safekeeping, and generally live in a
snowstorm of unsorted paper.

Their solution? A filing system and retention plan. On the surface,
their approach sounds simple enough. Label some file folders and stuff
your papers into them. Throw out the papers when you no longer need
them. The downfall comes with the maintenance of their system, which
requires ongoing diligence in shifting papers from one folder to
another, a regular review of file contents, and the grand annual purge.
The people who would do this file maintenance work are probably not the
ones who need the help the book offers.

The authors are librarians, so it’s understandable that they harbour
a naive confidence in libraries as a backup source for information.
Obviously they haven’t experienced library service in a rural area.

The chapter on “digital housekeeping” makes some sound suggestions
for parallel systems and integration of hard copy and electronic
systems.

The style is clean and clear but flat, the tone humourless and
uninspired. Nonetheless, the work fulfils its mission to present a few
fairly obvious thoughts on how to master household information
management. Its appeal will be strongest to readers with zero office
experience.