Tax season has been over for a little while, and if there’s one thing that you probably found while digging up all your relevant paperwork is that you have a lot of it!
Old receipts, property/rent bills, car payments, donations to charities…sometimes it can be hard to know what you actually need to hang on to, and even then it’s hard to know how long to keep it around. If you find yourself staring at a mountain of files and paperwork and nowhere to keep it, we’ve got some tips to help get started on cleaning up!
Get Rid Of The Obvious: A lot of paperwork that tends to pile up is stuff that, really, you’re never going to need again. Junk mail, expired coupons, old grocery lists, receipts from Little Caesar’s…trust us, you’re never going to have to look at any of these again. Out it goes!
Keep Financial Statements…But Not Forever: There are some old documents you need to keep, but even for those there’s a ceiling to how long they need to stick around. Only hang onto your last few months’ worth of paystubs (unless your paycheck has had some huge fluctuations in the meantime), keep tax records around for seven years (just long enough for the IRS to decide to audit you…not that they have any reason to, right?), and hang onto bank statements for one-to-three years just in case you have any bank disputes later. If it’s older than that, out it goes!
Stash The Important Stuff: There’s some documents that, really, you should never have to get rid of: birth certificates, marriage certificates, Social Security documents, insurance papers, and so on. These should all be filed into one or two small boxes and stored together on a small wire shelf in a safe place so you know you can get to them when you need to!
What About NEW Paperwork?: Of course, you’re never really going to get rid of your paperwork altogether, and the constant influx of new stuff is going to mean you’re never truly done. The best way is to be proactive: get a desk organizer to keep important work paperwork near your office, and hanging up a mail organizer in your entryway or right by the front door can help separate the mail you need to keep from the flyers and unwanted coupons. (But it begs the question…is any coupon truly ever unwanted?)