Itemize: How do you organize?

2007 will be the first time I itemize my taxes. What do I need to know now to maximize the itemization? What is the best method to organize everything in preparation for tax season?

Nagel
http://finance.webaplex.com

The main thing is to file things IMMEDIATELY! If you wait until the end of the year, or just pile everything in a shoebox, you can find yourself in a real mess, trying to remember what is what. We annotate receipts immediately and then file them in the "Next Year's Taxes" file. When we donate clothes to charity, we make a list of the items as we box them up. Now that we saw a blurb in the latest Kiplinger's, we will add photographs to the charity-list as well.

But the all important this is, no matter what your system, that you make notes immediately, so you don't forget come the next tax-time.

Not only do I have a file to help me keep track, but I also enter the info in my personal finance software. That way it is easy to figure the totals at the end of the year, and I have the documentation to back it up in the form of my organized file.