One of my big goals this week is to start fresh in my filing cabinet. I'm taking receipts and certain paperwork from their regular files and moving them to new files labeled "through 2010." For instance, my folder with household receipts will move from the "Household" folder to a new "Household through 2010" folder.
I did this back in 2008 and when I recently purged my file cabinet, I knew that I could pull and shred all of the information in the "through 2007" folders without looking at it. Some of the items from 2008-2010 needed to be kept "just in case," but instead of going through it all, I just kept it all for now. I'll throw it away next year. :)
Back in 2008, my hope was to do this type of back-filing annually, but you know how life goes: it didn't happen.
This year, I'm creating a clean slate once again.
I know I keep more papers and receipts than most, but I thought this tip might help someone else out there who gets overwhelmed with paper clutter, like me. :)
Happy New Year!
I did this back in 2008 and when I recently purged my file cabinet, I knew that I could pull and shred all of the information in the "through 2007" folders without looking at it. Some of the items from 2008-2010 needed to be kept "just in case," but instead of going through it all, I just kept it all for now. I'll throw it away next year. :)
Back in 2008, my hope was to do this type of back-filing annually, but you know how life goes: it didn't happen.
This year, I'm creating a clean slate once again.
I know I keep more papers and receipts than most, but I thought this tip might help someone else out there who gets overwhelmed with paper clutter, like me. :)
Happy New Year!
Posts
2 comments:
I just completed this task, but cleaned out YEARS of stuff. I have now recycled 6 full garbage bags of shredded documents that took me 3 days to shred because my machine kept stopping when it had had enough.
We've moved 3 times in 2 1/2 years (and big moves, overseas, cross-country) and just kept carting large file boxes (we never had a file cabinet) around the world. I decided to put an end to it once and for all and have spent around 16 hours clearing it all out. It felt so GOOD to have purged 3 feet of paperwork!
Anyway, what I'm really writing to say is I've sourced an AWESOME new device called "Neat Receipt" - it should arrive Down Under any day (its from the US). Its a small document scanner that you can set up right next to you wherever you are (i.e. instead of the big printer/scanner thing we have upstairs in the office) and you can scan receipts, documents, cut out recipes from magazines that you want to try, etc... right there and then it saves it on your computer in a special Neat Receipts software program, creating a digital file.
The great thing for those in the US is this: the IRS now accepts scanned receipts (i.e. charitable donation receipts, store receipts for deductible items, etc) - so you don't even need your Household up to 2010 file - just put it all on your computer and back it up! Then when its tax time, you can actually run an itemized tax summary from the program which is to the IRS standards and forms! If you use an Accountant, you can even generate a PDF file and just email it to him/her.
Anyway, this sounded like something that might interest you, so I thought I'd let you know. I'm trying to go as paperless as possible in my house and can't wait for it to arrive (any day now). I'm especially excited to scan all the zillions of magazine recipes I've pulled, then file them by main ingredient and get cooking!
I've been hitting my files and papers hard to have a clean slate this new year as well. It's funny because every time I go to file I end up with some I don't have a place for.. and then I start to question whether I really need them. Happy & organized 2011!
Post a Comment