This week Kyle provides us some valuable information about how long to keep important (or not so important) documents.

As May rolls in I have been doing some Spring cleaning in my home office. Sorting through piles of old bills, bank statements, tax related stuff, and on and on. I have always been unsure on how long I needed to keep these documents for tax purposes, or in case I somehow needed to use them to prove my identity, or some other unforeseen situation. So I did some research that I wanted to pass along to you. I got this information from the IRS.gov website along with BankRate.com. Hope it helps.

~ Tax Related Documents. - Keep tax returns, receipts, cancelled checks, and any tax related documents for 7 years. IRS can go back 6 years if they suspect you of tax fraud.

~ Bank Statements. - The experts say not to shred these until 1 year has passed.

~ Credit Card Statements. - 45 days if not tax related, 7 years if any purchase on your statement is tax related.

~ Paychecks. - Keep pay stubs for 1 year. Once your W-2 arrives, make sure it matches your pay stubs before you destroy them.

~ General Bills. - Bankrate.com suggests 1 year. For big tickets items, keep receipts longer than 1 year for insurance reasons in case of fire or theft.

Hope this list helps you as much as it helped me! Since this post has to do with organization and home office stuff, I will pass along some office supply coupons and stores with many organizational products and filing cabinets. Just leave a comment if you know of any better coupons so we can all save some money!

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Filed under: Guest Posts, Homemaking, organization