The one-year box
Posted by Jorge Bernal October 28, 2007
Have you ever thought about getting rid of something, and found yourself wondering will I need this in the future
?
If the answer is yes, you may have your house full of useless stuff, just like me. I found today 15 great de-cluttering tips, and this was the most insightful for me:
Take all your items that you unsure about getting rid of (e.g.
I might need this someday…), put them in a box, seal it and date it for 1 year in the future. When the date comes, and you still didn’t need to open it to get anything, donate the box WITHOUT OPENING IT. You probably won’t even remember what there was in the box.
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Except for tax records! (At least in the U.S.)
The IRS wants you to keep them for at least 7 years … this is not to say I have all of mine for the past 7 years anything like handy or even that they exists
But I also hope that I don’t get audited — if I did, I’m sure I’d wish I DID have them all neat and pretty going back those seven years at least. (And maybe more — if only to prove that other years were or weren’t anomalous.)
timothy
That’s a really good idea. I have plenty of stuff laying around that’ll soon get dropped into a “one-year” box. Thanks!