Ring in a More Organized New Year

We hope you're all enjoying the holiday season. Things have been busy around here and we've taken a bit of a break from blogging until next year (which means next week!). But we wanted to leave you with some helpful year-end advice, once again from Kate Altieri, one of our expert organizers. Here's Kate's annual New Year's Day ritual that starts her off on the right foot for the New Year...and the upcoming tax season.


New Year's Day is a good time to get paperwork in order for taxes and the upcoming year.  My annual clean-out and organization takes place every New Year's afternoon - here's what I do: 

• Pull out all of my receipts for the year, set aside the ones for taxes and keep those that were for large purchases or electronics. The rest get shredded.  
• Start new files for all of my regular and monthly bills; take out the previous year and include the necessary ones in the tax file. 
• Sort through my ideas file and the one marked "items of interest" to see which still apply and determine what to keep or give up.  
• Discard/shred any files that no longer need to exist and replace and label-well worn folders to keep everything looking neat.
• Investment statements go into a binder and stored in archival files in storage areas.  

By purging this way, my current files only take up one half of a drawer and there is plenty of room for the upcoming year's paperwork. Performing this annual ritual on New Year's Day makes me feel remarkably organized and prepared for the new year ahead. I actually look forward to this project and the fresh start!!

Bottom Line: A little year-end organization can go a long way toward a fresh start for the New Year. So grab yourself a cup of hot cocoa and give Kate's simple steps a try for yourself!

Photo Credit