So I have been diligently purging and organizing and cleaning our house since January 1. One small drawer at a time. It has been going really well. I am happy to report the house is clean with the exception of a few areas. These are the dreaded areas I have been putting off!

Welcome to the filing cabinet. I want you to know this is my new beauty. Our previous filing cabinet is some two drawer 1991 fabulousness. I have fought this thing for years-but alas the hubs is in love with the thing. It’s a goner.

Someone on this house also loves to keep receipts as memorabilia. Someone in this house thinks we need utility bills from 2005. That’s all I’m saying.

I have only just begun this long adventurous journey known as cleaning out the files. It is with each new file that I obtain and enormous pile of shredding. Live to shred-shred to live. I mean I’ve only gone through ten files and have filled two full garbage bags-enough said.

I thought I would share some helpful file saving tips with you along this journey.

What to Keep 101

1. Taxes-ok they say 7 years but honestly life sounds good.

2. Insurance-home, renters, life, vehicle etc. Keep your statements for one full year. Keep the policy info for five years. I was surprised by this!

3. Bank-Statements, account info, IRA, Bonds anything of this sort-1 full year

4. Pay Stubs-if you still get them-1 full year

5. Utilities-cable, gas, electric, yard service, pest service-1 full year

6. Medical-I keep the receipts in a tax file for this year and anything that is in detail of what you have, have had done, etc-forever

7. Pets-I keep everything-registrations, AKC, vet for the life of the animal

8. Car-we keep all maintenance for as long as we own the vehicle.

9. Home-Mortgage-payments-1 full year

Loan paperwork-as long as you own the home-same with insurance

I hope this helps. It’s nice to have it all in one place.

Oh also make sure you write down info that can be stored in your go binder as you clean out your files. Include numbers-policy numbers….

We also keep files on the maintenance/upgrade of our home and of our rental property. I keep these in a separate file labeled home repair with the address and keep them behind the homes regular files. You don’t know how many times this info. has come in handy!

Happy shredding!