My Arch Nemesis: PAPER CLUTTER!

Whether it's piled, filed, stabled, or clipped I can't stand paper clutter! You know what I mean.... those mounds of magazines (that you have been “meaning to read”), bank and investment statements, notes, bills, receipts, invoices.... it all drives me nuts.  

So, I am a scanning maniac!

A few years back, Shawn and I bought a scanner (HP Officejet Pro) at a CompUSA close out sale. We purchased it for about $150 and I’d venture to say it was the best money I have ever spent.  So, I thought I would share a little about my system and why I love it so much in case you are going through the same anxiety I was every time I walked into our office!

What you need:

·        Computer

·        Scanner

·        A thumb (jump) drive

·        Recycling Bin

·        Email address

Step 1:  Organize your piles.  Take everything out of your filing cabinets and start putting them into piles separated into different categories.  This will make the next step that much easier.

Step 2:  Make folders in your computer's My Documents folder on your computer that correlate to your categories above.  If you are not computer savvy and do not know how to do this here is how!

Here are the titles to my folders:

1. Bank Statements – Now I get them through email however I still pull them up on my email and save then as the date (July2011) in this folder.  Then I immediately delete them from my email (nothing worse than a full inbox).

2. Investment Accounts

3. Utilities – With the following sub-folders

a. Cox Communications (our TV, Internet, and Cable provider)

b. Power

c. Waste/Water

4. Cell Phone Statements

5. Cards

6. Medical – Sub-folders include Shawn, Shay, Miss H

7. Insurance – Sub-folders include Health, Car, Home, Flood, Life, etc.

8. Other – This is really anything that doesn't fall into another category

Step 3:  Start Scanning.  Needless to say if you have not ever scanned anything you will need to review your instruction manual and practice with a few things.

Here are my scanning tips:

1.     Do not try to do more than 10 pages at once.  With the list of things you should be scanning I can’t imagine why you would need to do this… but at-home scanners are not made for large bulk scanning and you will get frustrated by the paper feeder pulling too many pages at once, or getting jammed! TRUST ME!

2.     When you scan something in, it should go automatically into a “Scans” folder in you’re My Computer drive. You can open this whole folder and right click and hold on the scan you want to select, then drag the scan into the folder you have made (from the list above).  This will save you from opening and doing the whole “save as” routine.

3.     If your statements come printed front and back… which many do… you will need to make a copy of the back sides, put the pages back in order (including your copies) and then scan. To save paper (my new eco-friendly ways) I keep paper I have printed on before or maybe old one-sided statements in a box under my desk. Then I use those to make the copies. That way I don’t have to buy paper to just throw it away.  By “throw away” I mean recycle of course, which brings me to our next step…

Step 4:  RECYCLE!!! Don’t let all that paper you get in the mail turn into more waste buried on our earth! If at all possible go to paperless statements and bills but if not, then recycle!

Step 5:  The last step is the MOST important.  BACK IT UP… and no I do not mean your booty! Whether you use the thumb drive mentioned above or an external hard drive you must save your documents somewhere other than you individual computer. I know it’s hard for us to believe (if you’re like me you think computers are angels sent from heaven) but computers are not perfect and they don’t last forever! They break, malfunction, and sometimes even die for no reason at all.  It will only take this happening to you once before you realize just how important this step is.  Who could forget that episode of Sex And The City where Carrie’s computer crashes and she freaks… in case you forgot here’s a clip!

I hear it from new moms all the time. “We are growing out of this house” or “I just have no room since the kids”.  But bottom line is you CAN have more space without purging everything in your house completely. (Stay tuned for more space saving blogs)

 Here are a few tips on how long you should keep specific records…

·        Tax returns or tax related items – 7 years.  Note, the IRS does take scanned receipts as well as originals… they actually last longer if you scan them!

·        Yearly Savings plan/Retirement Statements – Until you retire. You should only keep monthly statements through the year until you get your yearly statement.

·        Paycheck Stubs – 1 Year. Make sure you get your W-2 and make sure it matches your stubs and then recycle those bad boys.

·        Credit Card Statements – If these are correlated to tax deductible expenses then you should keep these along with your tax documents for 7 years. If not, you only need to keep them for 45-60 days.

·        Housing Closing Docs – Forever. Enough said!

·        Bank Records – Either 1 year or if they are related to taxes like mentioned with the credit card statements keep them for 7 years.

·        Bills – Most of the time you should only need to keep these for 1 year (utility bills, non tax related, and small purchase).  I would say for large purchase (TV’s, Computers, Wedding Rings, etc.) you should keep these bills and receipts as long as you have the items.

So, I hope this helps in your space saving endeavors.  You can never have enough room but you can sure get rid of the paper clutter! I promise it will make you feel a lot less stressed when you walk into your office and don’t see stacks of paper lying around!