When you take on a caregiver role for another adult, there’s a lot of organizing. We have been going through this in my own family for a few months. That story isn’t really mine to tell right now, but it involves hospitals, rehab centers, selling a home, insurance (of course), and one paper chase after another. It’s a very familiar story to many of my followers.

If you are or will be a caregiver, you can do it the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is always better. Here’s my advice for organizing paper for caregivers and organizing digital information, too.

Organizing Paper for Caregivers

Don’t overthink it. The first and best step when you are a new caregiver is to grab a single spiral notebook and write everything down, with every agency you talk to, every doctor and nurse you meet, and every phone call you make.

Date each new notebook page on the top right corner, so you have a record of who, what, when, where, and why you had the conversation. It may seem like you are starting by adding paper, but it is the absolute best way I know of to keep details straight and keep them handy. A spiral notebook will cost you about a dollar, but as they say, maintaining your sanity is priceless.

Add a pocket folder or a binder with pocket dividers, and you’ve got a foolproof way to keep all forms of paper organized. These Avery write-on pocket dividers for binders are the best, IMHO.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t also try to keep your records electronic with a digital notebook like Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, or Apple Notes. Digital is a great way to go, but if it’s not your go-to method, a crisis might not be the time to learn something new. Something about a camel’s back and a straw…don’t let that be you.

Organizing insurance paperwork alone might drive you mad. I’m so sorry, I wish I could make all of that go away for you. But since it’s not getting easier to track, pay, and fight with the insurance companies, you’ve got to keep excellent records.

Putting bills and notes in a three-ring binder in chronological order is still the best way to keep paper organized, no matter where it comes from. Add to your binder in the moment, when you open mail or come back from a medical appointment. The better your records are, the more likely that you’ll be able to win a billing dispute or medical treatment challenge.

What are Vital Records?

The best time to get organized is before a crisis hits. It’s important to know what important documents are the most valuable and where they are. My Vital Records printable is available for free download here.

Whether you are organizing your own records or are helping a family member, this one-page document will make quick work of figuring out what the important documents are and where the originals are kept.

Gathering your vital records listed on this sheet should take about an hour.

Once you have the originals of your vital records, make a copy and keep them in a separate spot from the vital records originals.

Make a Will and POA, Just Do It!

Let me pass on what a client told me just last week: Make a will. Just do it. Don’t wait.

She told me that the amount of energy and money she wasted when her husband died unexpectedly was just tragic. Like many people, her husband had drafted a will, but he had never signed it, so it was worthless!

Last year a dear client of mine passed suddenly (on the day of our scheduled appointment!) and I was devastated to learn that he also left his family without an executed will. The folder that we had set up for his drafted will was a cruel reminder of his worthless good intentions.

If your loved one gets sick suddenly, then you need a Power of Attorney to be able to act on their behalf. Depending on what state you live in, this could be one or two documents to cover both financial and medical affairs.

You can easily make a will and Power of Attorney TONIGHT by going to RocketLawyer.com, ChristianWill.org, Freewill.com, the oddly named JoinCake.com or any number of other good online resources. For free. You may wonder if just going online for a will is good enough. For sure, it will be a great deal better than letting the state decide your final affairs.

You can meet with any estate planner and replace your will later if you choose, but not having a will and POA can be a huge burden to your loved ones when a crisis happens.

It is estimated that the average estate can take over 400 hours for an executor to settle. That’s like working for 10 weeks, full-time, for free…while you are grieving. And that’s if everything goes well. Don’t leave a burden like that for your family.

What a Caregiver Can Do First in a Crisis

You can download the Life Crisis Organizing Steps document for free. I developed this checklist after seeing several friends go through different foreseeable life-interupting events. We may not know which events are headed our way, but they are somewhat foreseeable. Even though we know our parents are aging, there may come a day when they can no longer care for themselves. If you are called on to provide daily care, or what the insurance companies call ADL, activities of daily living, like bathing and toileting, now you’ve got both their medical crisis and your scheduling crisis to deal with.

Of course, when most people are going through a major life event, they want more than a worksheet. What they really want is information specific to THEIR situation, or personalized, hands-on help. We work with people all over the country via video meetings. You can schedule a 15-minute organizing discovery session here to see if organizing support from HeartWork Organizing matches what you need.

Paperwork Systems for Caregivers

Many people handle some personal business online, but they are still awash in too much paper, often not knowing what to keep or what’s really important. Parsing through a parent’s overstuffed file cabinet with decades-old statements to accounts that may or may not be open is no one’s idea of a good time.

If you are a newly-designated caregiver, you can start to build a file system for your loved one from scratch, and salvage important papers from their existing files as you need them. I recommend the Freedom Filer system to get you up and running quickly.

I also like the NOK Box, another popular solution you’ve probably seen in your Instagram feed. (affiliate links for both) NOK stands for Next Of Kin, literally the box of important information you plan to hand to someone when the time comes to pass on your affairs.

I always encourage families NOT to undertake a file purge of their older relative’s paperwork in the name of getting organized. It’s easy to miss or toss important information this way. For example, you may not know that in order to qualify for Medicaid, you may need to prove financial status going back five years prior to the Medicaid application. Better safe than sorry, and retain mom or dad’s old paperwork while applying for benefits.

Whether you are sharing the load with siblings or shouldering all of the caregiving yourself, keeping really good records is a must.

Organizing Digital Information for Caregivers

You may have to, as we did, set up a brand new email for your relative (where you keep the password and set up access on your computer) so that you can handle the complexities of contracts, insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. You can’t get through their gauntlets without having online access and a working email address. So much happens only online now.

Stay alert for scammers and fraud. The internet made things more convenient, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier. Figuring out how to keep our relatives and their assets safe is no easy task, but it starts with being organized. Staying on top of account balances and bills is essential. In order to do that, you need passwords.

Passwords are the Achilles heel of many caregiving families. Although you’ve been told never to write down your passwords, in many cases, it’s the only way to start accessing accounts and needed services. I recommend keeping these in a secure online password manager OR written down and kept securely in a desk at home. To avoid leaving your loved one’s password list behind somewhere, don’t keep a list of passwords in a notebook or binder that travels with you.

Don’t forget that most, but not all, major online providers now have recovery contact settings and legacy contact settings. Establish these before you need them. Recovery contacts allow you to help a relative who gets locked out of an account like Apple or Facebook. A legacy contact allows you to take over an account to leave a final message or collect precious photographs.

This really only scratches the surface of organizing paper for caregivers.

I truly hope that you’ll never be in a crisis situation, but we all will be at some point.

If we can help organizing digital information or paper for caregivers, please reach out to us here at HeartWork Organizing.