Where Things Are

When I began working on my own end-of-life plan, I assumed the best way to organize our important documents was to put everything in one place. So I tried.

My solution was two 2-inch binders, complete with alphabetical and numerical tabs. Estate documents, financial records, insurance information, household records—I tried to create a place for everything.

It was a mess.

Most of the documents already had a perfectly logical home. I was creating a new filing system simply so someone else could find them someday.

Then I realized there was a much simpler solution:

Leave everything where I naturally keep it—and create a master list showing where everything is.

Creating the list wasn’t difficult. I didn’t need to relocate things. I just needed to make them findable.

Important documents and information can be scattered everywhere: an original trust in a safe, tax returns in a file cabinet, insurance records on a computer, a vehicle title in a desk drawer. Others may be stored online or held by an attorney or financial advisor.

I know where those things are.

But would Kim? Would my children?
Would the person administering my estate?

That realization became the basis for the Integrating Household Files task in the Legacy Essential Tasks workbook—a master list template showing where important documents and information are kept. They don’t all have to be in one place. What matters is leaving a clear path to them.

Someday, my family may need to find any number of those records. Without a guide, they would be left searching through drawers, boxes, computer folders, and online accounts trying to understand a filing system that makes perfect sense to me—but perhaps only to me.

And there was an unexpected bonus: the list can also be useful today. When I can’t remember where I put something, I now have a way to find it.

But the real value, of course, is making things easier for the people I love.

They won’t have to search.
They’ll know where to look.
Because I left them a path.