How do you organize?

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you've probably picked up on the fact that I love rebates. I love getting money back for items I'd buy anyway, trying new items for free and sometimes making money on rebates. There's also something about that delayed gratification that comes with waiting for your rebate check that makes it even more satisfying.
So how do I keep myself organized? Its sometimes not easy! I usually do multiple rebates, using my address, my boyfriend's address and my parents' address. That means I have to keep all my paperwork organized. One of the biggest tips I can offer you is to process everything shortly after you've shopped. Even if you just put a post-it on the receipt to remind yourself that you bought a rebate item, you have to do something to distinguish that receipt from others so you don't throw it out. I usually put all my receipts into a folder in my desk and keep them for a couple months anyway, so I don't run into that problem too often. I hang onto receipts in case I have to do a return, but this has also come in handy when I've bought a NBPR rebate for grocery items. I can just look in my receipt folder for qualifying items that I've already bought.

Anyway, getting back to the day-to-day. As I'm writing my blog posts, I usually enter my receipt info into my spreadsheet at the same time. I'll usually circle the qualifying items right away and throw them into my coverted Easter basket for processing later. I keep the basket on my desk, so I can easily look through and see what I have there. I used to do my rebates right away, but lately, I've been waiting until I have a bunch, and then I process them at the same time. This older post has my step-by-step process for processing out rebates. I'm just gonna focus on my organization today.

I've found that if I just put the receipts into the basket, I'll sometimes forget what item the rebate was for. So right away, I circle the rebate item(s) on the receipt. Sometimes receipts are really hard to decipher and I've found that if I wait, I'll totally forget what the item is and what the rebate was for.
If I'm working on a rebate item by item (ie. save $5 off $15 of produce and I'm buying fruit and veggies here and there), I'll keep all the receipts together in an envelope. If I wanna get crazy, I might even keep the rebate form in there too. I try to put post-its on the front of the envelope telling me what rebate it is, the expiration date and my progress towards the total.

I also keep all of my rebate forms together in one spot. I use this envelope for tearpad and NBPR rebates and I have a separate folder for larger or printed ones. This helps me look quickly for something.

Organization is so important in helping me save money and keeping me sane. I can't stand it when my desk is a mess.

I'd love to hear your methods for keeping everything on track!