Storing options
An accordion-type file or a drawer full of manila folders will keep things sorted. Keep separate files for investment statements, credit-card bills, warranties, and the like. Thus, you can see if something is missing, and you can find anything when needed.

What to save and how long?
Many people are confused about what documentation should be saved and for how long.

Keep all federal tax returns and supporting documents for at least six years. The Internal Revenue Service generally has three years after your return is filed to assess tax. If you file a fraudulent tax return, the IRS can come after you at any time.

It is important to retain trade-confirmation notices you receive from the stockbroker or mutual fund when you buy or sell securities so you can calculate capital gains or losses.

Also, keep the invoices from any improvements you made to your farm or home. When you sell, you can reduce the tax due on your profit by adding in the cost of any permanent home improvements, such as those incurred to update kitchens or bathrooms, to your “basis.”

Saving important documents
Homes burn down, get swept away by floods, and are destroyed by tornadoes. With these disasters can come the added annoyance of losing important and often hard-to-replace documents.

To avoid a double disaster, experts recommend that families keep birth certificates, property deeds, and insurance policies in a safety-deposit box at a bank. Photocopies should be kept at home.

However, a will, which needs to be readily accessible to the executor of an estate, is best kept with the family attorney.

Jeanne Salvatore, vice president for consumer affairs at the Insurance Information Institute in New York, cautions that the contents of safety-deposit boxes are not insured by banks or other financial institutions, but families can get protection for valuables in their safe boxes at home with “riders” on their homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policies.

Because computers have become so much a part of daily life, Brent Neiser of the National Endowment for Financial Education says an increasing number of families are storing backup copies of their computer disks in their safe boxes. He also suggests that families do a household inventory with a video camera and store the videotape should they need to provide documentation for an insurance claim.

Try to keep all these records in one place and make certain that a family member or friend knows the exact location. You also may wish to provide that person with the log-on instructions for accessing personal or financial files in your computer, if you have one.

However, neither filing paperwork nor weeding out files will decrease the flow of paper into your home. To do that, you have to look to the source of those papers. So, consider consolidating bank and brokerage accounts and limiting the number of institutions with which you do business.  

Organization Strategies
Stephanie Winston, considered the nation’s leading expert on self-organizing strategies, has some other suggestions on how to work smarter, faster, and  better.

For example, use bulletin boards for reference papers, such as kids’ schedules, inspirational sayings, and favorite take-out menus. But keep important papers in the proper file or an “action” stack, where they can’t be overlooked.

She also says it’s money well-spent to hire people who save you time. Take advantage of messenger, pickup, and delivery services and travel agents for booking vacations.

A way to put an end to so-called telephone tag: leave messages that ask for specific responses, instead of vague requests to call you back. If you are not beside the phone when the call is returned, the caller can still provide the information you need—on the answering machine.