By Alicia Rockmore & Sarah Welch

01. Approach your counters with fresh eyes by taking photos (as many as you need) of the area. This will give you a new perspective and most likely more motivation as well.

02. Think about how many gift cards and coupons that have expired because you misplaced them. Or how about bills that have gotten lost (or worse, thrown out) in the stacks and piles of paper and mail on your kitchen counters? When you have clutter and piles, it’s not only affecting the cleanliness of your home, it’s costing you money! Pay a bill late and you get fees, forget to use the $25 grocery coupon and you’ve thrown out free money.

To battle this, create an organized paper sorter on the counter, like the Mail.Sorter™. Have a bin with slots for bills, catalogs, correspondence, etc. If you force yourself to sort out the important mail from the junk everyday, you will at least have won half the battle.

03. Next, create a coupon organizer, divided by the Month the coupons expire, instead of the type of good the coupon is for. That way, every time you go to the store, you can grab just the coupons for that month and will never lose any in the shuffle.

04. Set a weekly time to go through everything in your Mail.sorter. If you can at least commit to going through all of it once a week you can reduce the overwhelming work of having loads of piles to sift through.

05. Cut back on the subscriptions to magazines or direct mailings that you never read. For example, if you get a bunch of catalogs for home goods to stores you never buy from, call their customer service and get yourself off of the mailing list. You’ll be cutting down on clutter before it even reaches your house! Try this site for starters.

06. For family’s with multiple children (especially ones with older teens and kids) create separate folders or sorting slots for their school mail, magazines, or extracurricular information. It’s also good to have a “Parents Read/Sign” folder for items that you need to take care of for them, like permission slips or new schedules.

07. Have a “Things Drop Zone” at the door. If you can get a box with compartments, that’s even better. Use this box for keys, purses, wallets, phones, backpacks, whatever items usually end up in the middle of the kitchen counter or scattered all over the house. As long as these items have a common place they land everyday, you’re all set.

08. One of the hardest things to keep track of is the family calendar. To keep from missing important dates, be sure to keep track of everybody’s schedule on one, master calendar. Try posting a Whiteboard in the kitchen area to make sure that one person isn’t stuck with the responsibility of tracking down every detail; this will ensure that all family members are responsible for inputting their information into the master calendar each week (ideally on a Sunday afternoon).

09. Only keep active items on your counters. For example, scrapbooking and art supplies should have a bin, drawer or space where they belong, especially if your family only uses them 1 or 2 times a month.

10. Try mounting corkboards inside of your kitchen cabinets to hang up coupons, business cards, receipts, etc. that you may want to use urgently and not file. They will be tucked away but easily accessible.

Thanks Sarah!

Did you enjoy this article? Give it a cheer!

August 28:

"There is a tendency among some businesses to criticize and belittle their competitors. This is a bad procedure. Praise them. Learn from them. There are times when you can co-operate with them to their advantage and to yours! Speak well of them and they will speak well of you. You can’t destroy good ideas. Take advantage of them."-George Matthew Adams

August 28:

When you are stuck waiting, use the time to clear car clutter. Five minutes may be all you need to clean out your glove compartment or car console. Bring a trash bag with you and gather things that don’t belong in the car. When you return home, throw the bag out!

By Joshua Zerkel

Receipts - everyone has them, but nobody wants them. As with most things organizing-related, most of us are never really taught what to do with those pesky slips of paper, so they tend to get pretty messy and out of control. Here are a few ideas for how to deal with receipts:

Don’t take them.

At almost every purchase we make, we’re offered a receipt, even when it’s completely unneeded. Of course, once it’s offered to us, we usually take the receipt and then have to deal with it once we get back to our home or office. Unless you’re expensing or deducting a purchase and need the receipt for documentation or recordkeeping, try to not take it from the cashier. If you’re quick, you can even tell them to not print a receipt at all. The fewer receipts you take, the less you’ll have to process later – and your pockets will be less cluttered!

Recycle or discard.

But what if you do bring receipts back with you – what do you do with them then? Most of the time, I see clients’ receipts get stuffed in a bag, box, or drawer and they are never seen or heard from again. Instead of cramming them away, as soon as you get back to your office or home, immediately look at your receipts and decide which ones to keep (if any), and recycle or shred the rest.

It’s a pretty safe bet that you’re keeping way, way more receipts than you actually need. Ask yourself what you’re keeping each receipt for. Is it for a tax deduction? Keep it. Is it because you need it for a work expense? Again, keep it. But do you really need those old grocery receipts and movie stubs? Probably not. Be ruthless when going through your receipts.

What to keep – and how.

Of course, there are certain receipts that are worth keeping. Typically, this list includes things you are planning on returning, items that have warranties, artwork, and other things that you want the cost documented for insurance purposes. One way to store these receipts is in an expandable wallet file, which can be separated by vendor, date of purchase, or category.

This method is really easy and very quick. Another method that I use with clients is to scan receipts, using a tool like Neat Receipts or a service like Pixily, both of which help facilitate the process of getting your receipts onto your computer. Once the receipts are safely stored on your computer, you can then usually recycle or shred the actual paper receipt.

Of course, there are more ways to deal with receipts than what’s listed here. What are some of your favorite strategies for managing receipts?

Thanks, Joshua!

Did you enjoy this article? Give it a cheer!