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Have you already finished your taxes? Just starting them? Are you inching your way towards finishing them, and looking around you to find that you have a mountain of papers ready to shred?

March and April, collectively considered “tax time,” is the perfect opportunity to clear out your file folders, your desk drawers, your purses and wallets and pockets, and shred all the receipts and documents you don’t need to support your taxes.

Of course, if you’re not sure what you need to keep and what you’re able to toss or shred, Paper Doll has you covered with a detailed records retention schedule, Do I Really Have To Keep This Piece of Paper? Once you know what needs to be shredded, start gathering up the piles.

Three-inch stacks of cable bills dating back to your first apartment? Ciao!

That mountain of receipts from the coffee truck outside your building? Gone!

Frequent flyer loyalty mile statements from airlines that long ago merged with the big guys to become a super-mega airline? Buh-bye!

Dating back to the classic Paper Doll post, Shredding the Documents: Find Your Shredding Solution, we’ve talked about how essential it is to shred items that you no longer need for tax, legal or proof-of-ownership purposes, because merely tossing them in the trash could put you at risk for identity theft.

If you’ve got a great shredder, then shred away, one small pile at a time (because unless you’ve got an industrial-strength shredder, more than a short stack at a time will cause your residential shredder to overheat).

However, if the to-shred stack is as tall as your favorite little tax deduction — I mean third-grader — then you need to upgrade your shred game. And you have a few options!

PRESS THE EASY BUTTON

You know all about the Staples Easy Button, right? What could be easier than handing off your piles of unneeded, unwanted papers and having them magically destroyed…for free?

Head over to this Staples’ link to a coupon to shred up to 5 pounds of paper for FREE! Since it’s for shredding, the coupon is obviously valid in-store only. So, go to the link, print the coupon, bring  it to your favorite Staples store along with your massive pile of excess papers to shred. Once the shred center folks at Staples take everything off your hands, present the coupon at checkout.

Of course, there’s some small print: Offer valid through 5/2/15 in-store only. Discount applies to shredding services of up to five pounds. Limit one per customer, nontransferable. May not be combined with any other coupon. No cash/credit back. Not valid on prior purchases. 

HEAD DOWN TO THE DEPOT TO GET SAVINGS TO THE MAX

OK, corny, I know, but now that Office Max and Office Depot are one big happy family, you know that they’re not going to forget your need for shredding those monster piles.

Head over to the Office Depot/Office Max Tax Page and scroll to the bottom. Click on the link that looks like this:

and it’ll yield an actual coupon you can print (or bring in on your phone, tablet or other mobile device). Note: this coupon is for shredding up to two pounds of paper, and for a narrower time frame, from now through 4/25/15.

This photo is just a facsimile. (Check the actual coupon for the official small print.) So, click on the above link, print it out (or securely save it to your device in Dropbox or Evernote or whatever), gather up your shredding and get that pile of paper clutter out of your office or off your dining room table.

Declutter, protect your identity, and save money? Paper Doll thinks tax day just got a little less taxing!