The Joyful Sort How To: Eliminate Paper Clutter
Let’s talk PAPER. My girl Beyonce says it’s the best revenge (major points if you understood that obscure reference and also we just became best friends so, yay!), but paper clutter is one of the most common organizational woes out there. Uncertainty about which documents should be kept and for how long, paired with the all-too-common “just in case” anxiety can make tackling paper clutter seem like an incredibly overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be - let’s get it done!
Note: the tips below are for regular household paper, not kids’ school paper and art (more on that here ), though a lot of the fundamentals are the same!
A recent paper sorting session in my own home office…
Peace out, piles!
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’ve got paper piles scattered throughout your home, so my first tip is to gather those up into one spot. Yes, this will probably be a “yikes” moment that will make you feel a little or a lot overwhelmed, but I promise it will be okay! Don’t worry about any existing file storage just yet (we’ll get there) - just any random, scattered piles that may have accumulated.
Once you have everything pulled together, grab one pile at a time and start sorting documents into broad categories (recycle, shred, To Do, medical, financial, home, etc. ), using Post-It notes to mark them out for reference (these will come in handy later as you’re establishing or re-working your long-term filing/storage).
If you’re struggling with whether or not to keep a particular document, I highly recommend referencing the easy-peasy guidelines that one of my favorite home keeping bloggers, Clean Mama, has put together. If you need to discard documents containing sensitive personal information, but don’t own a shredder, check with your city to see if they’re got any community shred days coming up or pop into a local office supply store such as Staples, where you can usually take care of any shredding for a small fee.
Once you’ve gotten a handle on weeding out the unnecessary and mapping out the major categories that make the most sense for you, it’s time to set up your paper zones.
Simplify.
Going forward, there should only be two paper locations in your home: a short-term action/sorting spot and a long-term storage spot (some sort of filing cabinet or filing box).
Think about where you’ve naturally accumulated paper in the past, anywhere that you tend to drop things as you walk through the door or unpack from the day - that should be your action/sorting (short-term) spot. I recommend super basic categories here:
To Do: Now - anything that needs attention within the next few days
To Do: Soon - things that are less urgent, but still need to stay on your radar
To File - anything that needs to be incorporated into long-term storage
Mail - this one is flexible depending on whether you’re like me and deal with mail so quickly that it doesn’t even have time to hit your countertops or whether you’re more of a once-a-week person
Long-term filing obviously involves a few more categories, but should still be kept as simple as possible. The long-term categories that I use in my home are:
Taxes - Current Year (things like donation receipts or any other deductible items)
Taxes - Prior Years
Financial (loans, retirement, etc.)
Financial - Kids (info on 529 plans, savings bonds, etc.)
Medical
Home
Auto
Education (diplomas, test scores or other “official” school documents)
That’s it. Within certain categories, I may binder-clip documents together into sub-groups when appropriate (for example, all of the documents for my car are clipped together separately from documents for my husband’s car, but they’re all contained in the same Auto folder), but beyond that I don’t get too caught up in sub-categorizing. All of our vital documents (birth certificates, passports, social security cards, wills, etc.) are kept in a fireproof safe in a spot where we can easily grab and go in the event of an emergency.
If you’ve already got some sort of filing system set up in your home, I would recommend doing a revamp/decluttering there after you’ve banished any backlog paper accumulation and established your short-term drop spot. Eliminate any file categories that are redundant or no longer relevant. Remember: the simpler a system is, the more likely you’ll be to maintain it.
Stop, drop, and un-enroll.
As with any form of clutter, the best way to prevent it from building up again is to stop if from coming into your home in the first place. Everything from take-out menus to bank statements can be found online nowadays, so my number one tip is obviously to go paperless whenever you can. Bulky catalogs are one of the easiest and most impactful things to put a stop to on the front end, either with a quick call to the company’s customer service number or through a junk mail service such as Paper Karma.
Habit is what keeps you going.
Here’s the part that nobody really wants to hear: paper has got to be dealt with on a weekly basis, if not daily.
I know.
But the only way that you’re going to not find yourself back in the same paper pile predicament (alliteration for the win!) this time next year is by shifting your response from a reactive one to a proactive one. Start by designating one day a week to deal with paper and work from there as you’re comfortable. Any step forward in a new direction is a positive one!
I’d love to hear about any paper problems that you’ve encountered in your home and hopefully help provide a solution - let me know in the comments!