An hour well spent

At the end of each financial year I bundle up all of my paperwork from the previous year into an envelope. I then do my tax and the envelope is filed with other year's tax returns in a storage container in the shed. Aah ...... shed. Wow that's another story. I've never had a shed before and can't believe how tempting it is to put things in there and forget about them.

Sounds organised right?

NO. As I just bundled up all the paperwork for the financial year there were receipts for everything, old bills, bank statements and lots of other paperwork that I shouldn't still have. So, I recently spent an hour getting this:

to this:

and put all of this in the recycling bin:



I have now put all the information in a lever arch folder (that I also emptied as what was in that was not needed). Unfortunately, I got a bit behind in filing my tax returns so I have to keep hold of them for a bit longer. As you have to keep your tax returns for 5 years from the date you filed them I have a bit of a backlog that I have to hold on to.

I was really impressed with how little time it took to complete this task. I had been meaning to do it for a while but kept thinking it would take ages. I got to the point where I thought I would just do 1 or 2 years at a time but once I got going I just couldn't stop. It is amazing the feeling you get from this sort of purging and organising. It really gives the impetus to keep going!

I have been sorting through some other paperwork that I have holding onto for way too long. A lot of it has found it's way to the recycling bin. The rest is just waiting till I can scrapbook it. I'll keep you updated on this as I go along.

I'd love to hear if you have a "black hole" for paperwork. Where you think you are organised but not really? Maybe we can inspire and motivate each other. I really go in fits and spurts with this and find it hard to maintain motivation.