Today's Monday Monday is brought to you by your filing cabinet. The one that you hopefully have in the corner that you treated yourself with from Pottery Barn or West Elm or even Target - some place that officially says:

"I am organized. I care about my things. I will stay on top of these money matters. And I will kick butt.'

Get A Filing Cabinet

For my 32nd birthday, I asked for a filing cabinet from Pottery Barn, and vowed to eventually have a total of four matching ones. That never happened, and I still have the one, but boy does it contain a lot of important information. Orbiting the filing cabinet are mini standing folders that you can find at Target, that hold themes of very important things. One held my husband's bills before and shortly after we married (before I allowed his bills to be accepted and folded into my life - even after our marriage), and one for the house (mortgage bills, city and school tax totals, property tax appraisals, receipts and warranties of appliances).

Both the filing cabinet and the orbiting file boxes maxed out a long time ago, but continued to be stuffed into. Until Tax Season 2017, when I snapped out of the routine of filing around the stuffed folders, and actually looked inside.

Look Inside - Throw Away - Voila, You Have a New Filing Cabinet

Inside of the filing cabinet were three years of Verizon bills from seven years ago. We haven't been with Verizon for seven years. Why are they still filed and not recycled by now? Exactly. Thrown away. Same applied to several other sets of bills that just had no relevance anymore. The result? New space in the existing filing cabinet.

This is your job for Tax Season 2017. While you're in the thick of it, preparing your taxes for the April 15th deadline (maybe you are already done!!), take the time to get a fresh take on your filing cabinet, and you will have new brain space for new growth, new purchases, and new security.