3 Key Steps to Organizing Paper
If you’re like most families, clutter has a tendency of happening. It can be difficult to keep everything contained. One of the key causes of disorganization and clutter is paper! The reason? It seems like it just keeps coming. Be it through the mail with bills, insurance, coupons, correspondence, or through your kids school – with never ending art work, school assignments and permission slips, it’s everywhere. But there is a solution to keep paper from cluttering your home and complicating your life!
When I work with clients, we start with three key steps to begin organizing your paper.
Step 1: The BIG purge – Remove the paper you don’t need
Discard anything that you no longer need or anything is “nearly” trash, to quickly reduce your clutter.
Think about “nearly” trash paper as items like the flyer to the event happening in just two days from now that you know you’re not going to be able to attend, or the offer you received in the mail that is soon-to-expire and (realistically) you know you’re not going to act on. This is a time to consider what you’re realistically going to be able to accomplish in the short term.
As a rule of thumb, you will need to get rid of 85% of your current paper. That’s a lot of paper, so be ready to be ruthless!
Remember, almost everything can be found online. So if you need to find that information, you’ll be able to access it online.
Step 2: Create a household drop zone for paperwork
Find a centrally located holding place for your paperwork.
This holding place could be a basket, a tray, or a desktop file folder. No matter what item you choose, its purpose is to eliminate the piles of paper that have a tendency to accumulate all over your house and kitchen counters.
This holding place is now your go-to home for all your actionable to-do’s: like mail, receipts, items to return, forms to fill out, bills to pay, letters to read, and notes you write to yourself.
Go through ALL the items in this holding place EACH week on the SAME day to build routine into the activity. Put away papers you intend to keep in a place where you can easily find them when you need them. Discard any paper that is no longer relevant.
Step 3: Create a system to organize the paper you keep
Organize your filing cabinet and develop a system to make the following household papers fall into these four overarching categories:
Household Reference – Includes items like warranties, manuals, insurance, all papers for your physical house (utilities, services), vehicles (maintenance, title, DMV)
Household Operations – Think pet information, party ideas, holiday notes or ideas, travel information, and school activities
Financial Summaries – Is everything needed for someone to act as financial power of attorney on your behalf or to settle your estate after you pass (retirement account details, bank information, taxes, and investments)
Medical Category – Are papers needed to advocate as a power of healthcare, or guardian for an adult, information for each family member for medical, vision, dental, mental health, prescriptions, etc.
Memories – Are sentimental items like cards, photos, notes from loved ones, and top school artwork from each grade level
Now that you have overarching categories, create subcategories, which are labels for your hanging folders. The great thing about this system is, it can also translate to a file management system on your computer as well.
Remember: Paper organization and management is a weekly task. Think of your paper management system like a pet. You don’t just get the pet and never take care of it – you need to continuously feed, play with, and pay attention to your pet. The same goes for paper management.
While organizing your paper can be overwhelming, the three key steps to organizing your paperwork above will go a long way in helping you fight the never-ending paper clutter.
For additional tips, you can also check out our other blog on paper management that features different strategies and suggestions to keep you organized.
You’re not alone in this. If you feel like you may be in need of a partner to help you on your paper organizing and management journey, we are here to help! Many of our clients value our paper organizing and management services the most because of how overwhelming it is. Call us to book a paper organizing consultation today.
