Preparing to tackle my financial paperwork

This is a picture of the counter top that serves as our dumping ground for every important piece of paper or mail that comes through our front door. It's a good thing it's so big! This is undoubtedly one of the most difficult parts of the condo to keep organized, and it's actually a miracle that it looks this good in the picture I took earlier this week. :)

The bane of my existence for the last several years has been developing a small, concise system that I can use to keep track of my bills, bank statements, tax returns, paycheck stubs, and all the other variosu pieces of important financial information that seem to flood into my condo. I realized this January as I was searching for important tax information that I still had in my possession every single pay check stub I'd ever received - since my first job nearly 10 years ago - and that they were in NO WAY organized.

I did some google searching (and blog reading) today about what kinds of documents are really important to keep for an extended period of time, and which ones can really be disposed of after awhile without risking any potential damage. I thought that this document provided the most realistic and helpful guidelines about time frames for particular types of documents.

So tonight, I think I'll go invest in a paper shredder! I have two accordian folders that I've been utilizing for a year or so, but they need a drastic overhaul. This will be a weekend-long project I feel, but it'll be so nice to have it done and out of the way!