How do I organize my monthly paper bills?
Write the due date of each bill on the outside of the envelope and stack them in order of when they need to be paid. Set aside a time every week to go through the bin of bills and pay them. As you do this, it's a good idea to find a place to file your paid bills.
File folders or paper trays work well to arrange important physical documents into easy categories, such as “to pay,” “to shred,” “deal with ASAP,” or “send out.” You should also have a shredder in the space to properly get rid of confidential or private documents, a scanner to digitize files that take up too much ...
- Setting Up a Bill-Paying Station. ...
- Making a Master List of Monthly Bills. ...
- Using Automatic Payments When Appropriate. ...
- Putting a Bill Paying System in Place. ...
- Keeping Good Records. ...
- Designating a Family Bookkeeper. ...
- Using Budgeting Tools/Apps. ...
- Using the Cash Envelope Method.
- Make a list. ...
- Create bill-paying spaces. ...
- Check your statements. ...
- Review your due dates. ...
- Ask about your grace periods. ...
- Make a bill-paying date with yourself. ...
- Streamline the payment process. ...
- Keep paying attention.
On a sheet of paper or spreadsheet, list each of your monthly and periodic expenses, as well as any bills you know are upcoming. Add them up and subtract the total from your income and savings.
- Divide papers into 2 piles: throw away or keep. You can take two actions: keep or throw away the paper. ...
- Archive important and infrequently used papers. Some examples of these documents are: ...
- Properly recycle papers you don't want. ...
- Shred personal or sensitive documents.
Keep any paper cash, currency, and valuable paper records locked in a quality, humidity-controlled, fire-resistant safe. If you have valuables such as paper cash or other important/sensitive documents, you absolutely need to invest in a quality safe with UL-rated security and certified fire protection.
After you've paid your bill, you can pretty much shred these unless they contain tax-deductible expenses. In that case, you'll need to keep them with your “tax stuff.”
Bills Organizer & Reminder has dashboard-style views that allow you quickly see approaching bills, and it sends payment reminders for upcoming bills before due date. Never miss bill payment and always pay all your bills on time!

To effectively manage bills, stay organized using tools like calendars, spreadsheets, and payment reminders to track due dates, and establish habits like a regular bill-paying day each month and auto-pay options when possible.
How long should you keep household bills?
Keep for a year or less – unless you are deducting an expense on your tax return: Monthly utility/cable/phone bills: Discard these once you know everything is correct. Credit card statements: Just like your monthly bills, you can discard these once you know everything is correct.
- Make a cheat sheet. Start by making a list of all your bills and payments. ...
- Consolidate due dates. It can be difficult keeping track of multiple due dates. ...
- Set reminders. ...
- Use autopay. ...
- Read your payment policies. ...
- Check-in regularly.
The easiest way to manage your bills & subscriptions
Chronicle is available for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Download it free in the App Store. Chronicle gives you the power to manage all your bills and subscriptions.
Monthly utility/cable/phone bills: Once you know the bill is correct, toss it. But if you deduct some of these costs on your tax return, you'll want to save them with your return (more on that in a moment). Credit card statements: If you know all the charges are correct, you probably don't need to keep this.
Visible light causes damage as well. So, be careful not to expose your notes to high levels of either natural or artificial light. Framed works should always be mounted so that there is an air space between the glass and the note. The note should not be in direct contact with the glass.
Keep good records
You might file these all together in a folder labeled for that month, or create separate folders for each account, with the most recently paid bill filed on top. If any of these bills are needed for tax purposes, you may want to make a copy and file it with your yearly tax documents.
Then we tested our hypothesis: the 20/20 Rule. Anything we get rid of that we truly need, we can replace for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes from our current location. Thus far, this hypothesis has become a theory that has held true 100% of the time.
It's kind of like a NASA countdown. So whenever you're stuck on a decision, you literally count down from five to one. So five, four, three, two, one. And then by the end of those five seconds, you decide what you want to do with that item.
Created by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists, the 90/90 rule is a decluttering process that requires you to ask yourself two questions about objects you're not sure about: Have you used it in the past 90 days? And if not, will you use it in the 90 days ahead?
Place Cash in a Waterproof Container
But exposure to a large amount of water, such as during a flood or burst pipe, can also damage paper currency. Even within a gun safe, many individuals who store cash will opt to place it in a waterproof container.
What should I do with old paper money?
Old US Currency is Worth At Least Face Value
Keep in mind that local businesses won't necessarily accept old bills, but banks will typically swap them out for newer ones (as long as they can verify their authenticity).
Start by storing your notes in a reasonably cool, dry place—one that remains that way. Anywhere that is subject to extremes of heat, cold or humidity is the wrong place to store them. Ideally, conservators recommend a temperature between 18 and 22 degrees centigrade and between 45 and 50 percent relative humidity.
A paper shredder is one of the most common ways to dispose of sensitive documents and offers convenience and security.
Bank statements and canceled checks. Even if they're old statements, they should be shredded. Your name, address, phone number, and bank account information are in those statements, along with your habits, purchases, and banking history. Even if the account is closed, shred it anyway.
KEEP 3 TO 7 YEARS
Knowing that, a good rule of thumb is to save any document that verifies information on your tax return—including Forms W-2 and 1099, bank and brokerage statements, tuition payments and charitable donation receipts—for three to seven years.