And it’s no joke either! Have you ever tried jamming hundreds of little pieces of paper into a shredder? Dios Mio. It takes a LOT of time my friends, but totally worth it :) Can’t have your business all out there for naughty little thieves to get their hands on!

We all have our own methods and reasonings behind tasks like this, but here’s how I work it. Feel free to holler back w/ your own experiences as we’re always lookin’ for new ways to reduce the pain!

1. Hold onto all receipts for at least a year.
Or at least 3 months if you hate to build it up. The hardest part here is just getting used to saving them all. As dorky as it sounds, I like to keep all the receipts i get for the day in my right jeans pocket so I always know where they are. Then, at the end of each day, I just pull ’em out and plop them in their little homes! Don’t even have to think about it. (on a side note, i keep all my cash and id’s and all in my left front pocket as to not get confused. or robbed from the back in DC – but that’s for another day)

2. Create a no-fail method in order to hold onto said receipts.
I pretty much do the same thing i’ve done for years now: My version of the Shoebox Method. You basically just throw everything into a shoe box (or a chest of mini-drawers in my case), and then leave ’em there until you ever need them. You could also use bags, file cabinets, or anything else really – just whatever gets you to follow through with it.

3. Shred all the oldies.
Aka, the boring/annoying part. Sure it’s fun and exciting doing the first 10 or 15 shreds, but man does it get old after a while. So let this be motivation enough to do at least once a year! (Unlike me who waited 2 years and thus had quite a build up as you can see from the picture) Oooh, and when you’re done w/ the shredding, split all the pieces into 3-4 separate bags! this way even *if* somone gets their hands on them, it’ll make it that much harder to get it all figured out.

So that’s what I’ve been doing this weekend – cleaning up shop and shredding everything I don’t need anymore. It may sound like the opposite of fun, but it sure does feel better! And you know what they say – a clean and tidy house makes for a clean and tidy finance sheet ;)