Save or Toss? Taming the Paper Monster

From the archives: This article was originally posted 1.24.11.
January is often the trigger for fresh resolve to get organized. I spent most of New Year's day driving my new vacuum cleaner and diving into cluttered closets. Do I know how to celebrate or what?


My resolution? Not become a reality TV star featured on Cops, SuperNanny or Hoarders.

Clutter kills.

My biggest challenge (and I know I'm not alone) is managing the paper. No matter how much I try to digitize my life, paper continues to stream in and accumulate like snow drifts. I want to be responsible and prepared, so I find myself agonizing over what to save, file or toss - so I ignore and pile instead.

As W2s and other tax documents begin to appear in my mailbox, it's time to review my strategy for staying on top of paper clutter - just in time for tax season!

Paper management should be a routine task on a schedule appropriate to your situation. For example, most businesses have daily SOPs to deal with receivables, payables, and all other sorts of documentation. Personally, a weekly sorting of the contents of my purse and mailbox is usually sufficient to keep a handle on things.

Here are just a couple of tips for dealing with receipts (of which I now have scads from Christmas shopping).

My general rule of thumb: keep anything that you may reference on a tax return, receipts for items under warranty, anything to be reimbursed, and proof of payment.

• I tuck anything that I think may be relevant to my tax returns in a big brown envelope labeled: Tax 20XX. I have everything handy come tax time, and anything it turns out I don't need, I can discard.
• For big (or medium) ticket items under warranty, I've found the easiest thing to do is attach the receipt to the product paperwork. Sometimes there's so much paper in the box, I just throw all of it - the owners manuals/assembly instructions/warranty info - in a zip lock bag with the receipt. It all goes in a "product info" file. Since we seem to accumulate more of these at Christmas time, I've even put a whole season's worth of new product info all in one bag, with a label on the bag listing the items referenced within. 
• Receipts for reimbursement usually go in my wallet until I request reimbursement. Makes sense, right? It always feels like found money when I get it back. (I know, completely irrational.)
• Everything else just hangs around long enough to be validated against a bill or statement, then assuming there are no discrepancies, it's headed for the trash.
• Go as paperless as possible. Obviously, the contents of my purse belie this maxim, but receipts are about all the paper I handle anymore, and for a very limited time. I get most of my bills and manage most of my accounts and banking online. Once I've seen a transaction posted, then I ditch the receipts. I know I can retrieve that info if I need it in the future, and I'm not moving piles of paper around for eternity (or until the statute of limitations runs out).  

Vmeals keeps receipts for all your orders for all eternity. What restaurant is going to do that for you? When you need a receipt for your expense report, all you need to do is log in to your account, click on your order detail and print your receipt. No digging required. (Hey, you knew a Vmeals plug was coming.)

So what are some of your best tips for keeping the paper monster tamed? I'd love to hear them.