Break it Down
There are no shortcuts to good organization. The first step is to create general filing categories that can be subdivided.
People tend to create single files on huge topics, such as taxes, rather than breaking them into more usable groupings. Or they tend to use a straight alphabetical system, which can fall apart because they forget whether the family van is filed under "car" or "truck."
While rethinking your paperwork problem, you should pay attention to your bill-paying pattern as well.
Filing is an annual routine, while bill paying is a monthly cycle. Consider a portable file-box with three compartments: one for credit-card bills, one for the other bills, and one for checking account statements. Once the credit card and other bills are paid and the checking account is balanced, the material is transferred to one of 12 monthly files.

What to Throw?
Knowing what to throw out is just as important as knowing where to put it. So weed out your papers with a careful eye on the Internal Revenue Service's statute of limitations.
Some papers can be discarded almost immediately. Brokerage statements, for example, should be kept only for the latest month and year's end, unless they contain information on securities transactions.
Documents that support your tax return, such as receipts for charitable contributions, need to be kept for at least three years, although the IRS has six years to raise questions. There is no limit if the IRS suspects fraud.
Other papers need to be kept longer because it may be decades before they are needed. Among those are records of contributions to non-deductible individual retirement accounts, real-estate deeds, and receipts for big-ticket items with replacement costs exceeding your home-insurance deductible. Also keep appliance lifetime warranties for as long as you own the product, but toss the limited warranties once they expire.
In clearing out your files, make it a practice to shred or tear up any mail or documents with your Social Security number or other personal information.

Electronic Organizing
If you want to cut clutter electronically, the latest crop of organizers saves things in neat rows of data and readily retrieves arcane bits of information.
Computer makers think everyone needs a personal digital assistant. There are special versions for students, professionals, and e-mail buffs, as well as PDAs that double as cell phones.
People with links to the Internet can use Web-based systems to store their appointment calendar, private "phone book" or to-do list, and check their schedule or find a phone number at any Internet-connected computer in the world.
The higher-end systems exchange data with desktop computers, electronic organizers, and cell phones.
Having your assets in fewer places also makes it easier for family members to take over should you die or become incapacitated.
These Web sites are free tools that offer digital calendars, address books, and notepads, plus the ability to synchronize data from other electronic organizers, such as personal computers, cell phones, and Palms-Yahoo: www.calendar.yahoo.com; MyVisto: www.visto.com.