This weekend I wanted to open more space up in my office. The first thing I did was put a bunch of books into the bookshelf in my closet, and other books in a container in the closet.
The second thing I did was combine two file areas – my financial folders and my action file. I realized I didn’t need the monthly folders that only had 1-3 pieces of paper in them each. Instead I created a yearly file for the pay stubs and bank statements.
I also didn’t use most of the tax files. See I input my receipts every couple of weeks and have them in categories on a spreadsheet. So I didn’t need the different tax categories in file folders. Now I have tax to be inputted and tax 2011.
Which left all sorts of room for my action files (to pay, to do, to input, kids school stuff.)
Do you have any file folders you aren’t using?
I always used to have one catch-all tax folder, and just tossed anything that looked tax-related into it. A couple of years ago I got a set of freedomfiler.com labels and divided it up into a bunch of different categories–bank statements, donation receipts, education paperwork, etc.
Obviously we haven’t received all the tax statements yet, but some of those folders have one piece of paper in them. Some have none. Once I do this year’s taxes, there’s a good chance I’ll condense them to one folder again.