Decluttering 101: From Taxes To Bills To Makeup Drawers

Sometimes, there are certain things that hold us up: tasks pile up, challenges seem to get harder as we “graduate” from previous ones, and as we hit bigger goals, some of the smaller nitty-gritty items (i.e. bills, taxes, etc.) go by the wayside.

There are some things and tasks in life that we really should do but end up procrastinating on; not because these are any less important, but because they are tedious to work on, or they seem to be so routine, boring and blah, that it’s easy to keep putting them off for the next day. Or the next week. Or the next month. Or the next year. Or, never.

Like taxes. Most people find working on their taxes annoying and bothersome that they’d rather hire other people to work on them. But in this age of financial instability and the need for prudent spending in every area of life, working on dirty jobs like tax preparation on your own could let you save a few hundred dollars more. A few hundred dollars that you could tuck away for future savings or your child’s college education.

Thus, we’ve prepared a few resources on organizing, to make working on the nitty gritty items easier, possibly even fun. And yes, let’s start with the taxes, shall we?

Decluttering 101: From Taxes To Bills To Makeup Drawers

Bills-In-A-Box: The Stress-Free System For Organizing Your Finances – Here is No Credit Needed’s list of tips on how to file and organize your bills and other financial documents. This is as practical as practical can get, with the tips going as down and dirty as getting the right boxes. Yep, those square things you can place stuff in. On the same note, Saving Money Today shares their own bill organizing tips in Organizing 101: Filing Your Bills Neatly.

Before you forget some other tasks that could save you a bit more cash, take a look at the article Take A Fiscal Health Day: Money-Saving Tasks You’ve Been Meaning to Do by BillShrink.com. It shows us things that need organizing that we may have missed. It sure is a good reminder for us all to go and call our creditors, so that we can stay up to date with our bill-paying.

Now that we’ve organized the bills, how about tightening up another area in our finances: let’s check out our wallets. Yes, that handy leather thing needs some organizing, too. Read up on The Simple Dollar’s Wallet Hacking: Six Tactics for Modifying Your Wallet to Minimize Your Spending and Maximize Your Time. Who knows, as soon as you get your wallet in order, you may be able to keep a few dollars from vanishing, and whatever you find, you can pour into a great high yield savings account instead.

Speaking of pouring something, Bargain Babe poured her time into organizing her freezer. What’s a kitchen fixture doing in a personal finance roundup? Well, organizing your freezer could save you time by freeing up freezer space (ever had to wrestle with your freezer for around 10 minutes just because you can’t stuff yesterday’s leftovers any longer?), as well as help you save money because defrosting can help your appliance use up energy more efficiently. And if the idea of being able to save a bit on electricity as well as a bit of time appeals to you, then Why Being A Freezer Diva Is Like Being A Landlord will appeal to you as well.

Lastly, women need to beautify themselves. And one of those areas that certainly needs some organizing is the makeup drawer. Ginger Won’t Snap’s The Purge Project: Makeup Drawer tells the story of Ginger’s attempt at managing the arrangement of her makeup. Incidentally, check out another one of Ginger’s posts on how to outsource your household chores, which may help you cut down on those extra chores.

Organizing isn’t rocket science. However, it is something that can take your time and attention doing. With these tips and a determined attitude, you can certainly organize your life, your bills, and even your makeup drawer! You can surely rein in the clutter, which will help you run your life more efficiently. Here’s to a decluttered you!