Clutter Busting Coach

…clearing clutter from your mind, body and space

Organizing Paper Clutter

Clutter Busting: Paper Piles

by Leave a Comment

The problem with papers is that there are more of them in a smaller space. Think about it…how large an area do 100 sheets of paper take up as compared to 10 boxes of stuff? So it is no wonder that we can become overwhelmed with paper.

Here are three tips for dealing with paper clutter:

  1. Start filing. Just do it now. No one loves to file but when you can put your hands on what you need when you need it filing pays off. So grab a stack from your file pile and file it now for 15 minutes.
  2. Scan sentimental memories. Save letters, cards, ticket stubs, invitations or mom’s recipes digitally on your hard drive or a flash drive. Schedule 15 minutes this week to scan some of your memories.
  3. Create a binder or expanding folder to keep your most important information such as emergency contacts, contractors, home and health and car information and restaurants. You can also do this for any theme such as recipes to try or warranties. Schedule 15 minutes this week to create a binder to corral loose papers.

Decluttering your paper piles can really create room and conquer visual chaos.

The Journey Into Clutter Busting: Important Papers

by Leave a Comment

Since I have been dealing with the papers in my life most of this journey so far I wanted to share some information about important papers.

There are critical papers that you need to help your loved ones should something happen to you. They are:

  • A trust or will.
  • A document recovery file.
  • A file index.

These papers will help those that need to take care of you should you not be able to take care of yourself.

I won’t spend time on discussing a trust or will other than to say you need one copy in a portable lock box at home and another off-site, but not in a safe deposit box (you don’t have access to it 24/7 and you can’t grab it and go if you needed to). [Read more…] about The Journey Into Clutter Busting: Important Papers

The Journey Into Clutter Busting: The Sea of Papers Gets Smaller

by Leave a Comment

WOW! I have more progress to report. I have unloaded more papers from my life.

I found a binder that I organized 11 years ago when we were doing some major decorating in our home. I called it “Decorating and Ideas”. It contained everything from samples of wallpaper, paint, carpet and material for our valences to potential contractor information to ideas for furniture and décor.

Since I had not used it in several years, I determined that the binder did not serve me anymore. So I deconstructed it and created a folder in my intermediate file cabinet that I titled decorating. I would estimate that I recycled (got rid of) about half of the papers that were in the binder.

I can tell you this one completed task has resulted in such a sense of freedom. I really feel that I am really unloading a lot of extra “baggage”.

What this task also reminds me is that what once may have worked may not continue to work for you. So you shouldn’t be afraid to pursue new ways of organizing your stuff.

My next move is to continue to eliminate reference papers that are unnecessary or that have not been looked at in a year. What are you working on this week?

The Journey Into Clutter Busting: Archived Record Storage continued

by Leave a Comment

I have more progress to report. I have handled the following from my basement project list:

I have emptied two storage boxes of records/files that are intermediate storage. These are items that I will reference multiple times a year, but not weekly and no more than once a month. I decided to move these to the basement instead of keep them in the office closet along with a four drawer file cabinet they were previously stored in. It was taking up valuable real estate in my home office (extra bedroom).

I tossed a grocery bag full of reference material that I had piled for filing and intended for that same file cabinet. I recycled the papers since I hadn’t used any of them during the year they were in the pile.

I also made the conscious decision to purge anytime the four drawers of the file cabinet get full or minimally once a year. [Read more…] about The Journey Into Clutter Busting: Archived Record Storage continued

The Journey Into Clutter Busting: Paper Piles and Taxes

by Leave a Comment

I know that I started my clutter busting journey in the basement, but have chosen to divert my journey to tax preparation and records since it is that time of year.

Paper adds up quickly and can be a challenge to handle mostly because we don’t decide what to do with the paper when we have our hands on it.

I wish I would have taken a picture of my file pile before I tackled it. But on second thought that would have been more embarrassing than my basement photo.

I am glad to report that the file pile is gone. My 2010 taxes are in the final review stage and all 2010 archived tax records are stored and labeled appropriately. In addition, all 2011 records are filed appropriately. No more file pile (imagine me doing the happy dance).

This journey into clutter busting is full of lessons learned and the theme that continues to reappear for me personally is about daily practices. Routines for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks keep us on track and prevent us from getting overwhelmed. For me this includes having time scheduled weekly to focus on paper management. I already scheduled “filing” in my calendar for next week. Did you?

I also scheduled some project time for next few weeks for paper management projects. But more on that later…