Five Minute Friday: Eliminate the Credit Offers

I thought I'd start up a little series where every other Friday I'll offer up a suggestion of something simple you can do in five minutes to help de-clutter your life.  Hence the name: Five-Minute Fridays!

Today's suggestion comes courtesy of my local Better Business Bureau.  If you recall, I took advantage of their Free Shred Day in April as part of my filing cabinet project.  Before I dropped off my papers, they handed me a "goody bag" that had some various information.  I flipped through it when I got home, and found a handy list of some useful websites.

Files: To Keep, or Not To Keep?

Although reorganizing my filing cabinet was fairly easy, I did have to spend some time researching how long I should be keeping everything.  I found that not every source had comprehensive information, so I had to compile from several sources, and then I also modified or created my own rules in some cases to tailor to my lifestyle.

Below are the guidelines that I used when de-cluttering my files.  Keep in mind that I'm not a tax or legal professional, so this is the intersection of common timeframes and what worked for me.  You may want to check with your accountant or lawyer if you are concerned about keeping or tossing certain documents in your files.

Master Plan - April Project: The Filing Cabinet

Although I'm a bit late in posting, I did finish the April project in April!  This project was the easiest so far and was a nice way to catch up on my schedule.