What clutter should I keep and how should I keep it?
Each individual has to decide on what clutter they want to keep and what they want to throw away, or what papers to keep, whatever. You want to keep the things that really have a value to you, first of all. So if you're sentimental and you want to keep notes and cards that people have sent you, that is perfectly fine. Give yourself a place to do that. I have a box that I keep, a really nice decorative box, and I put all the cards and notes that I get from that year in that box. At the end of the year, I go through that box, and I throw out the ones that I really don't want to keep. And then I put the ones that really mean something to me in an envelope and I file them away. And then I reuse that box for the notes and cards for the new year. So you have to determine, what the things that are important to you are. If you want to keep all your receipts, create a system to keep those receipts. Again, something that I do is I have an accordion folder, and I keep receipts in it by month. And I put all the receipts for that month in that accordion folder. So January receipts go in January and so on. Now at the end of the year, I can turn those over to my tax accountant. I can go through them and decide which ones I really want to keep or not keep. Or I can just, if I don't want to do anything with it, again, file that away, but I have a place that I'm putting those things. That I'm not finding receipts lying all around, in my dresser drawer, in my bathroom cabinet, because I just don't know where to put them and I'm just shoving them wherever I can. So it's really about thinking, what are the papers that are important to you, and how can I organize them so that I can still have them, but it makes sense. And, let's not forget, by doing all of that, you're saving yourself a lot of time by not having to then go through it when you really need to access that paperwork. So many people tell me, oh my god. I have my birth certificate, my license to practice medicine… I couldn't find it. It's somewhere in this cabinet. I don't know where. I tell people, create a 911 folder. Get yourself a little plastic folder that closes up, and put in it copies or originals, whatever you want to do, of all your important documents. Photocopy your passport. Photocopy all your credit cards front and back. Your driver's license, your social security card, your insurance cards, you car registration. That way, if anything should happen, if you had to run out of the house because of something, or if your car was stolen, all this information is sitting in this folder. And that's all you have to look for is this one folder, not search through everything and dig through stuff to find it.
