This will take time, so be prepared to forgo the use of that piece of furniture for months or even a year or more. Others use one room of their house as a base of financial operations. Everything is stored there, and copies of all correspondence are kept on file. Next, try to schedule a certain chunk of time each day to devote to the task at hand, and stick to it. Accomplishing even one task per day will give you some semblance of order and get the process under way.
Action is empowering, even if it entails making a single phone call or sending one letter.
Once you've assembled all the papers and developed a filing system that makes it easy to find the information on an as needed basis, it's time to take stock of advisors and friends who might help you make sense of it all. In part, that's because more of us are working full-time and contributing to the mutual pot. Then, too, as we marry later in life, many of us long ago abandoned the outdated notion that a knight in shining armor would take care of us for the rest of our lives and we'd never have to worry our pretty little heads about money. We began to accept responsibility for our money lives and started saving and investing in our 20s rather than waiting for a man to do it for us as many of our mothers did. It's quite possible that you have been the primary money manager, handling the household finances and making all the investment decisions.