What's a good way to purge and organize personal papers?
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I keep a spreadsheet to track expenses and only keep personal papers that are required for tax or legal purposes. Tax receipts are filed in a folder by year. Legal documents are in a fire proof box. Receipts for major purchases that are under warranty are filed together in 1 folder. Each vehicle has a folder for maintenance documents since both are under a lifetime warranty. All folders are in a small 2 drawer filing cabinet.
While it's hard, be ruthless in your purge. Get rid of as much paper as possible without compromising what is required to be kept. Be sure to save important documents such as tax return. Google how long important documents must be saved.
For purging, I suggest looking at your city's website to see if they have a confidential shred program where you can drop off your purged papers.
For organizing, clear plastic bins with hanging folders works well. Label the boxes well. Plus, the clear bins allow a quick glance at what's in the bin. Store in a clean, dry area so the papers don't get mold or mildew. Good luck!
We have a small filing cabinet, infact two, and use them as drawers for a desk with a board over them for a desk. Files are the easiest way to keep paper records. Some people now take snap shots of them and file them and save them in memory chips from their computer. We do both for different reasons and different information. Hope this helps.
We keep all our tax papers in one box labelled. We keep our previous returns for 7 years. When the newest year's paperwork comes from our accountant, I burn the earliest year I have saved. I don't like shredding personal papers, but we live in an area where we are allowed to burn, so we do that.
I have a habit of keeping all card statements, utility bills etc for one year. Then I burn them but you could shred them