For most of us, tax season is over, and we can now breathe a sigh of relief for another year. If you plan to shred or recycle large quantities of paper, now is the perfect time to do so.
With a little bit of planning, you can get your paperwork in order without too much angst.
Here are 4 tips to help you:
1. Make room for new materials by going through your filing cabinets (or wherever you keep your files). Shred taxes and the back-up documentation older than 7 years, old bills, old insurance policies, old bank statements, or anything old that has personal identifiable information on it. Recycle old newspaper and magazine articles, defunct travel brochures, etc.
2. Review your filing system to determine if the way you have your files set up works well for you. If not, for example, change the names of the files, or change the placement of the files.
3. Set up new files for the New Year if you have not done so yet, labeling them with meaningful names, so they are easily retrievable.
4. Check to see if your township is holding a free shred event. Many towns do so right after tax season to help their residents dispose of their paperwork that has personal identifiable information on it.
Since organizing is an ongoing process, files will have to be tweaked and paperwork will have to be shredded or recycled periodically. Remember, you can also get a lot of information on-line. However, if you follow these few steps, your system will be in order for the rest of 2013, and paperwork that has to be filed will have a home.
Now is the time to Go from Bedlam to Brilliance!
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