This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Fellowes Brands. All opinions are 100% mine.
Our taxes are finally done. Every year, it seems like I have more and more paperwork, and this year I had several folders of receipts, medical bills, and 1099s (14 of them!). Every year I say I’ll find a better way to organize it all, yet somehow I continue to resort to a shoe box or file to hold it all in, only to have to pile it all on my desk to shuffle through and bring some order to it.
This year took me an entire afternoon. Note to 2016 self: please keep your receipts more organized!
But finally it was done, everything was added up, and we are relaxing and stress-free.
After we got it all done, I pulled out our old tax returns from eight years ago and fed it to my Fellowes 79Ci shredder. I also put through old Christmas cards, paid bill statements, junk mail, and credit card information. The Fellowes 79Ci is a top-selling shredder, the ultimate shredding machine and is great for those who shred a lot in their home, like I do. It’s patented 100% jam proof (after using it for months, I can verify this is true), and it has heavy-duty blades that cross-cuts for secure shredding, up to 16 sheets at a time… no one will be able to find our private, sensitive personal and financial information this confetti.
I also got rid of that other paper clutter so many of us hold on to, even though it gathers dust and takes up room and weighs us down with guilt (because we don’t want it but feel bad we don’t want it). I know it’s hard to get rid of a lot of things like old Christmas cards, ticket stubs, autographs of people no one knows anymore, A+ book reports, and anything else that once seemed to have value or we “want to show our grandkids” but it’s soooo time! Your grandkids won’t care. Ready to spring clean with me?
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Clear our the paper clutter!
1. Start your Paper Spring Cleaning with everything you know you can get rid of, like older than 7 years tax returns, paid bills and bank statements, etc. Gather all of it and put your Fellowes 79Ci shredder to work. It can handle it! (it has an extra 20 minutes of run time). You’ll sleep great at night knowing no one can find your bank account numbers or social security number. And those stapled documents you save in case they are important (but never felt inclined to look through to be sure, so instead tossed them into storage boxes for years)- now is a great time to take a look through, and shred them if they aren’t relevant.
2. Gather all those old coupons and recipes, reminder notes, magazine articles you tore out to save but never looked at again, old invitations and lists, all paper stuffed into junk drawers to be taken care of later etc, and mercifully send them off. Later is now. Everything can be found online now, so the only sentimental items that need to be saved are photos and letters from loved ones, because they are the only things that you can’t replace. If there are scattered items of information that are important on various papers, compile them all onto one sheet and discard the rest. You’re distracted brain will thank you.
3. Get to the nitty gritty! All those art projects and school work from your children’s early years with their names on it, but that were clearly created by an adult… don’t feel bad tossing them. Your child will never feel pride looking back at the tree their teacher painted for them when they were 4, so feel free to toss those too. And since you can’t store a roomful of work from their school years, get into the habit of saving the best, and what is important, not every single letter they learn, or every math test. They won’t appreciate inheriting that massive paper clutter mess you saved for them one day.
4. Create a file system (in a drawer, accordian folder, etc) to easily sort and find important papers. Only file away what needs to be saved and shred the rest. Every sheet of paper is either relevant enough to be filed, or not important and shouldn’t add to your home’s clutter, so take care of it the first time you touch it, and try not to create anymore clutter on your desktop, in junk drawers, or on the dining room table. It goes in the file cabinet, or in the shredder.
Then admire your new, clean desk top and enjoy a cup of coffee.
The best way to stay on track after starting the new year strong is to regroup and declutter with a good spring cleaning… it helps us stay productive for the rest of the year. The stylish Fellowes 79Ci shredder is a big time-saver even shreds paper clips, credit cards, and CDs. It can handle stacks of paper up to 16 pages thick, and the Fellowes 79Ci runs for an extra 20 minutes, so a shredding session will last a long time.
It also has Patented SafeSense® Technology which automatically stops shredding when hands touch the paper opening (great for households with kids), and SilentShred™ Technology that offers ultra-quiet shredder performance (for the night owls among us who do most of our work at night). The 79Ci is available at Amazon and Office Superstores with a suggested retail price of $239.99.
Visit the Fellowes 79Ci website for more information.
