Spring Cleaning –you hear about it everywhere during the April and May months.  But what are the best gadgets and technology to make it a breeze?  I’ve got your guide to getting uncluttered!

 1. Neat Receipts 4.0: Neat Receipts is a mobile scanner and digital filing system that helps you manage all of your business and personal paperwork on your computer. I use it for scanning in important statements, business cards, as well as receipts.  It helps me go paperless ($184.99 on Amazon).

2. Shredders: Once important files are scanned, you’ll want to make sure the physical documents are destroyed safely with a shredder (identity theft is a scary thing).  When buying a shredder, keep in mind the simplicity of having one with a wastebasket, like the one pictured below; it makes cleanup a breeze.  Personally, I have the Fellowes Powershred DS-1 and I think it works great for the price ($122 on Amazon). 

3. Backup storage: Since you’ll be storing important scanned documents on your PC, you should make sure you have a back-up copy of your data in case you encounter a casualty on your machine. Ideally, if storing personal data, you’re best bet is to back up to an external hard drive or thumb drive.  Be consistent about your backup schedule to be certain you have your latest data set, just in case!  If you want to back-up online, I recommend going with Carbonite.  For a flat fee of $59 per year, Carbonite provides an automatic online backup of your data using software you install on your PC or Mac.  Although Carbonite states your data is private, I wouldn’t recommend storing any financial and or personal documents with the service.  For everything else, it’ll work just fine and it’s a great price.  Carbonite is offering a FREE 15 day, risk-free trial. No credit card required.

4. Listia.com: If you want to get rid of your unwanted junk, check out this post from earlier today about an eBay-like online auction site that is absolutely free: An eBay for FREE Stuff