Finding My Info for Taxes: Part 1

I hate paper clutter! It seems to just multiply and you can never be caught up because more and more paper comes in everyday...

It's that time of year when information has to be gathered and given to the accountant. It happens every year and every year I vow that next year I will do better about keeping it organized so it's not such a hassle to find everything.

Buried somewhere in this very full, blurry, paper box is my tax info. Along with other receipts, papers, magazine pages, recipes, etc etc etc.

 

As you can see, it is full pretty much to the top. I started by just sorting through every single piece of paper in the box, putting like with like. Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

The lid of the box now holds all receipts. I will have to go back through these, keeping and organizing all relevant ones for taxes and getting rid of the rest, which I fear will be the majority. Why did I keep most of these in the first place?

 

 

This pile is recipes I found in the big box of crap paper. I will not be keeping all of these. In fact, I will only be keeping a small portion of them. I'm sure there are several similar to ones I already have and there are some that are just aspirational clutter, things I will never make because they require too much time, energy or weird ingredients I don't normally buy. Some won't fit in with my new healthier lifestyle either. Although, the occasional treat is ok!

 

 

These old checkbook duplicates are from my move before last. They are old and no longer needed. They have been shredded.

 

These two pictures show a portion of what I trashed from the box. This is only first quick sort-through and already I found that much trash/recycling.

 

 

Here is the box after. It now has pages of magazines with decorating ideas, etc, my bank statements, deposit slips, and check duplicates that still need sorted and kept. This portion of the project took about 2 hours. I'm not finished yet, but I have made progress. Now for finding a system to keep this from happening again for 2014... Do you have any suggestions?