This time of year many of us are reminded of how disorganized our greeting cards are, and this is a twofold problem: blank cards AND the cards we’ve received. When I first meet a new client with these problems, the cards they’ve kept might be thrown in a box at best, or at worst, scattered throughout the home, mixed in with current and important documents.

I’m surprised it’s taken me so long to do a video on a system that I have created dozens of times over the years.

The BIGGEST problem many of my clients have is that of incoming mail. Most of the mail they keep is bills and statements.

It can feel anticlimactic that the physical remains of a decades-long career sometimes fit neatly in a stack of boxes. Some of my clients have multiple boxes that they brought home on their last day of work, even if that last day was many, many years ago.

You may wish you had the carte blanc services of a family member who is a professional organizer, but my poor mom can’t enjoy a glass of wine with me without me starting to dig around and organize something. “Kacy, get your hands outta there!” is commonly heard at my parents’ home (and has been since I was a kid!).

In cleaning out my own Evernote this week I found a gem of an article that can no longer be found online (another reason why saving articles to Evernote is superior to bookmarks!). 

This one happens to be a tear-out that I photographed while working with a client to thin her newspaper clippings.

Everybody wants to know “how long should I keep records?”  Each time I’m asked I refer clients to the IRS’s answer to this question to draw their own conclusions.  

Most are surprised to learn that they are keeping tax documents for about 4 years longer than necessary.