The holidays are long over and the new year is here. It’s time to clear clutter and get organized!  With tax season underway, you can start shredding papers.

If you’ve gotten your W-2 for income tax purposes, you can shred your paystubs for the year.  Make sure the W-2 matches your final paystub.

If your bank and credit card companies offer you an annual summary statement, take it.  If you agree with all the information, you can shred your statements for the period that it covers.  One statement versus twelve – much less to organize!

Go  through your receipts. I only keep them for purchases that have a warranty (or if I think I may return the item.)  I store the receipt in the product manual so that I know exactly when and where I purchased the item.

For any paperwork that you are not sure whether or not to keep, check with your tax preparer.

For the stuff in your home that seems to accumulate, my best advice is for you to take a small amount of time on a regular basis and sort through a small area. Empty out that catch-all drawer, tackle a desktop, or one kitchen cabinet. The trick is to do just that one spot.  You’ll find that by tackling one small area twice a week you will see progress in no time without feeling overwhelmed.

To me, walking into a room that has been organized and clutter free is one of the best feelings I can have.  Try it – it makes finding what you need easy.

Join Jill on February 27 and Never Waste Your Time Looking for a Piece of Paper

On Tuesday, May 17, let’s celebrate all those people who have stacks and piles of stuff!

Anita Taylor, Professional Organizer & Speaker, has the following advice for those of us who tend to let things accumulate, especially our important paperwork:

The best way to tackle a stack is to…

• set a timer for 15 minutes
• sort from the top
• use the 3 D Method
• Do it, Dump it or Delegate it!

Still not done? Read on…

Sort by category: When sorting materials that all belong in the same category designate a “home” for that category for filing or storing later.  This is meant to be a quick sort so you can destroy the stack.

Attack from different angles: The next time you attack that stack, start from the bottom, set the timer and GO!  Next time, top; after that the bottom; and, if there’s anything left on the 5th try, cut the stack like a deck of cards and work from the middle!

Don’t forget:  Set the Timer and STOP when the buzzer rings!

Once you’ve gotten this accomplished, be sure to write and let me know how it went.

You come home from a long day and your purse or wallet is stuffed with little receipts. They are from the bank, the store, and the dry cleaners. You probably even have your paystub stuffed in there. Do you have a system for dealing with all these little pieces of paper?  If not, now is the time to start.

I personally have different systems for different types of receipts:

Bank, debit card and credit card receipts –  For the most part, these are shredded after they are balanced to my bank statement. In the meantime, I toss them into my little receipt basket. If I ever need to return an item or get a price adjustment for sales items, all my receipts are in one place and easy to find.

Warranty receipts – Receipts for items that have a warranty are stapled into the product manual and filed by category such as “appliances”, “tools”, “technology”, etc.

Gift receipts – I keep gift receipts until I can be sure that the recipient won’t call asking if he or she can exchange my gift. I wait about a month, generally.

Dry cleaning and other delivery/pickup items – These go on my fridge with a magnet as  a reminder to pick up when ready. It also keeps the receipt handy.

Paystubs – I treat these a little differently. They are kept in an accordion file with my tax receipts and filed by category until my W-2 arrives and all paperwork agrees.

Because of the possibility of identity theft, each receipt and the corresponding paperwork is shredded before it’s thrown away.  I never toss any paperwork with account numbers or other personal information and you shouldn’t either.

Hurray! Tax season is over (unless you filed an extension).

The next step is to get rid of clutter – time to clean out your financial records.

Here’s what you can get rid of:

Paystubs – Do you have a stack of them?  You can get rid of last year’s because you have a W-2 that summarizes what you’ve earned.  Keep the W-2.

Bank Statements – If your bank gives you an annual summary or statement, then you can get rid of all the monthly or quarterly statements.

Tax Returns – Generally, you can get rid of tax returns that are seven years old or more (2003 and older) along with the supporting documentation.  However, you will want to check with your tax preparer if you:

• bought, sold and/or own a home
• hold certain investments
• received certain gifts
• have any other special circumstance that requires you to keep related paperwork indefinitely.

In other words, check with your tax preparer before throwing away your returns.

An alternative to paper files

Keeping your records on your computer is a great alternative to paper files. We had a lot of paper clutter hanging around, so I started the process of scanning my records as pdfs.  If you need a piece of documentation, it’s much easier to locate and open a single pdf than it is to search through a big, cluttered file full of paper. The best part is, that you don’t have to refile the pdf after you’re done looking at it. It’s also easier to fax or email a pdf if needed. Think of all the times you’ve needed to share information about insurances, taxes or rebates. Computer files are great to work with.

Make sure to shred

Remember when I say “get rid of”, I mean for you to shred each and every document that has your personal information on it before throwing it away.  You don’t want to offer dumpster divers an opportunity to steal your identity.

Call your tax preparer to see what you need to keep, and start to go through your paperwork to eliminate what you don’t need.  Happy Shredding!