Organize Your Paper Stash – Organize Your Home Week

Have a ton of paper lying around that needs to be organized? Take a look at these links and tips to help you get rid of your excess paper.

Here are 10 basic tips on how to reduce your paper stash.

This is a great list of ways to organize your household papers.

What you can safely throw away:

• Expired insurance policies.
• Non-tax related checks.
• Records, manuals and receipts for things you no longer own.
• Pay stubs going back more than two years.

Do you have a place to put your mail, recycling and things  you need to keep/file?

Umbra Cubby Wall Mount Organizer, Espresso
Umbra Cubby organizer The top organizer was also from Umbra, but it is no longer available.

These are things that you should not get rid of, but keep organized in specific places:

Things to keep:

• Canceled checks
• Tax papers
• Health records
• Credit card records
• Records of investments
• Wills
• Tax returns
• What to keep in a safety deposit box:
• Deeds
• Birth certificates and marriage
• Passports
• Stock and bond certificates
• A list of all insurance policies

(via essortment.com)

My favourite way to get rid of excess paper? Scan it !  I bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap last year and got rid of several boxes worth of old papers that I wanted to be able to look back on but not necessarily keep in physical form.