Keep or Toss? Paper Edition

So you’re ready to declutter your whole home! You have a game plan and plenty of boxes or bags to haul away ALL your unwanted stuff. Clothes, books, and housewares are easy— you probably already have a local charity picked out to take those to. And besides any emotional or sentimental attachment, it’s not too hard to decide what to get rid of. If it doesn’t fit or you don’t use it anymore, goodbye!

But what about perishable or sensitive items? It’s hard to know whether you need to get rid of that eye shadow from college or those tax returns from 2005. This series will give you some guidelines for what to keep and what to toss.

Today’s focus is paper! If you’re like most people, you probably have a stack of paper clutter stashed away somewhere…that you swear you’re going to go through…one of these days. Follow these guidelines and make today that day!

• Kids’ artwork and graded school papers

  • At the end of each semester, allow them to keep a few favorites in a memory box. Take photos of the rest and then toss in the recycling!

• Receipts

  • Put receipts in an envelope or folder, but go through the folder every 3 months and toss any receipts that are past the return date.

  • If you want to save receipts from big purchases like appliances and electronics for insurance purposes, scan them or take photos and then toss.

  • If you use itemized deductions, only keep relevant receipts for 3 years.

• Magazines/Newspapers

  • Local nursing homes or homeless shelters may accept recent issues, but anything older than a year should just be tossed. (Recycle them if possible!)

  • Old newspapers can be donated to animal shelters.

  • Farmer’s Almanac has creative ways to recycle newspaper.

• Coupons

  • unless you’ve already established a couponing system, be honest with yourself… you probably won’t remember to use all the offers you save from the mail. toss them along with other junk mail.

    • If you have Kroger/Ralphs in your area, you can load coupons onto your loyalty card using their website!

• Keep for 1 year:

  • Utility bills

  • Medical bills

  • Paychecks

• Keep for 3 years:

  • Bank statements

  • Any documents relevant to your taxes

• Keep for 7 years:

  • Records of paid-off loans

Once you’ve recycled or shredded everything you’re not keeping, it’s time to prevent more paper clutter from coming into your home!

• Sign up for paperless billing, bank statements, and paychecks wherever possible

• Learn how to stop credit card offers from being sent to you here

• Cancel magazine subscriptions you don’t read

If you’re side-eyeing your own paper pile right now but don’t have time to go through it all, I can help! Click here to book your free consultation call.