The Paper Purge

What to Keep and What to Toss?

Permanent Records

While Active

Seven Years

Three Years

One Year

Toss Me Monthly

Toss Now!

Kids’ School Papers

Terms

Sources

Permanent Records

To be kept in a very safe place; fire safe box and/or have copies in a safety deposit box

Keep a list on the computer or on paper of items in permanent storage

• Vital Records:
• Birth and Death Certificates
• Proof of Birth Letters
• Marriage Licenses
• Wills
• Adoption and Custody Papers
• Records of Paid Mortgages
• Separation and Divorce Records
• Military Records
• Child support Records
• Child support payments
• Medical Records from surgeries
• Legal Filings
• Settlement Agreements
• Citizenship and Naturalization Papers
• Social Security Card
• Diplomas, Certifications, and Transcripts
• Inventory of Household Goods and Appraisals
• Audit Records
• IRA Contributions
• Real Property deeds, titles.
• Baptismal Certificates

While Active or as long as you Own

Up to three years after you sell, or until warranty expires, or you can no longer exchange

• Mortgage Papers
• Home Improvement Records
• Warranties
• Insurance Documents
• Stock Certificates
• Property Records
• Records of Pensions and Retirement Plans
• Disputed bills, insurance claims, receipts etc.
• Motor Vehicle Titles, Purchase Papers, Repairs

Seven Years

• Records of Satisfied Loans
• Anything to do with taxes
• Tax Returns and any supporting documents
• Tax deductible bills, medical expenses
• Any checks, receipts, statements needed for taxes
• Records of Gifts, Charitable contributions etc. Taxes
• Records of Sale of House for Tax purposes
• Records of Sale of Stocks

Three Years

• Year End Statements after reconciled with monthly statements.
• Year End Investment Statements
• Medical Bills and Canceled insurance policies

One Year (unless tax deductible)

• Paycheck stubs- until you get W-2 then reconcile and toss
• Utility bills
• Ongoing Bills
• Canceled checks
• Monthly Bank Statements (If you receive e-statements save those and toss the paper.)
• Quarterly Investment Statements  

Toss Me Monthly after reconciliation!

• ATM Receipts, Bank withdrawal and deposit slips, credit card receipts
• Expired Coupons
• Receipts not needed for tax or warranty purposes.

Toss Now!

• Credit Card offers
• Sales offers
• “Junk” Mail
• Warranties and manuals for items you no longer own
• Coupons you will never use
• Recipes you haven’t used or don’t plan to.
• Copies of magazines (if there is an article you like clip it out and file.
• Event Announcements that have passed

Kids’ School Papers

Coming Soon!

Terms:

Reconcile- restore friendly relations between or to resolve a matter. Reconciling is something everyone must do to understand their finances. The transactions on a bank account must match the transactions on your monthly, quarterly, or yearly statements so  take one day a month, quarter, and year to make sure all of your papers match up. This helps with problems such as identity theft, bank errors, and your budget.

(Example Check your monthly statement to make sure all of your checks that you wrote for the month have cleared and are the amounts that you wrote them for.

Add up all the numbers on all your paychecks to make sure you are being taxed correctly on your W-2)

Sources:

irs.gov

www.suzeorman.com

www.kiplinger.com

justorganizeyourstuff.com

housekeeping.about.com

personalorganizing.about.com

http://besimplyorganized.blogspot.com

Road to an Organized Handbag

I Love Purses

Really! This is only a tenth of my purses, the rest are packed for the move.

I have specific preferences in a purse, as we all do.
I prefer mine on the smaller side with pockets big enough for my smartphone.
And I enjoy lots of organization.
In fact I have been on a quest for an organized handbag for some time.

Most purses are what I refer to as the Black Hole.

Here are some examples of the black holes I currently own.

 Typically you get one zippered pocket for personal items.
If your lucky you get another pocket or two for other random items.

Needless to say after a week or two the purse can get pretty crazy.

Can you find the keys?

So I do what every woman has done and tried to find a cure. 

Namely, Little bags.

One to store make-ups, and lotions.

Another for Tylenol, Dramamine, and prescription pills.

Let's not forget our coupon booklets and receipts holder!

But with so many bags and so little time
the purse tends to end up in the same state
and needs constant keeping up with.

Ick.

So next came a wonderful product called the Kangaroo keeper.
This is a keeper!

 It has lots of little and big pockets that can store so many things.

and it can jump from purse to purse so that you don't need to reorganize each new purse separately.

Score!

I was in love.

However it didn't fit in smaller hand bags or in the huge hippy bags.

Also there are so many pockets I would lose little stuff like my lipstick.

 I'm sort of obsessive about keeping myself simple and clean so I continued my Quest.

After googling organization websites like these.

http://besimplyorganized.blogspot.com/

and

http://completeorganizingsolutions.com/

I came up with these.

The Jen Butler Collection... AKA Butler Bags.

I was impressed!

 It seems a lot of professional organizers really love these bags.

You have two options for buying these bags as well, you can

buy the hand stitched leather ones online site unseen for 215 dollars.

Being me I'm a little wary of doing this as items never seem to be what I expected.

However, These are beautiful and I will purchase one for my birthday.

The Butler Bag

But if you're like me you like to touch and feel things before you buy.

Which is why I was so excited when I heard that Jen Butler has a line at Kmart! 

Yes you heard right, Kmart.

For around 18 dollars you can try one of these awesome bags. 

And there are many options for you to chose from. Here are the two I chose.

And here is the interior.

My daughter Jade loved the black and white one so much that she took it over.

Her current purse was a small mini backpack with no pockets.

 Try finding her cell phone. She couldn't.

 After much contemplation on her part Jade chose to put her things in like this. 

With five compartments Jade put her DSI in the longest. 

Her first compartment has her lotion and lip gloss.

Second one stores her cell phone. 

One keeps her sunglasses. 

and One has her small notepads and pens.

She keeps personal items in the interior zippered pocket.

She can now glance in and see everything. 

No losing her phone now as long as it is put in here.

Hopefully I will get that purse back to use it at some point...

Then I took mine.

and dumped out my old purse

It's been awhile. :/

Then with some sorting and tossing of trash My purse slowly became something I have dreamed of.

Joy! :) :) :)

Mine has Five compartments as well.

I put my coupons and receipts in the long compartment.

Next to that is my meds and gum.

One has my Rewards, appointment, and Business cards.

Then my keys and cell phone go in one.

The last one has make-up, hair ties, and clippers.

The sides of the purse has plenty of room for my Kindle, a book or a magazine and my coin purse.

And the one zippered pocket inside hides those special items we all love to hate.

Needless to say I'm pretty ecstatic. One glance let's me find whatever I need.

I'm totally going for the Leather one on my Birthday!