One of the most frequent types of clutter that is a constant cycle would have to be paper clutter. Although I am trying to become more digital, paper clutter always seems to find its ways into our home. Whether it’s daily snail mail deliveries, shopping recipes hoarding inside my purse or documents that may or may not need to be kept & stored – this form of clutter can get out of hand rather quickly. In today’s blog post, I will be sharing with you 5 ways to combat paper clutter & help you minimize this form of baggage from our lives.
The Shredder Is Your Best Friend
I strongly recommend everyone invest in a high quality shredder at some point. This device is a god send when it comes to junk mail & paper documents with private information. You don’t just want to be discarding these papers all willy nilly. Identity theft is a real thing & you want to be smart when decluttering such paperwork. I usually keep a shred bin in my office & once that’s filled to the brim, I’ll spend a few minutes shredding those items. Some examples include junk mail with our address on it, old bank statements that are already recorded, any paperwork that is years old & is no longer needed.
Digitize What You Can
If anything seems important, you can always digitize it on a hard drive or computer. Just be sure you keep your digital footprint organized as well. Although digital clutter is more masked than physical clutter, it can still use up space & memory on your devices. If you want to learn more about digital decluttering, click this post or this post as a reference. A few things I keep digitized are photos, old college papers I use as reference for my resume, to-do lists & bank statements.
Store Paperwork in File Folders
I’m still a bit old school when it comes to paperwork too. So, I actually keep hardcopies of a lot of important documents as well. I have the mindset of having both digital & hardcopy is good because you just never know. To keep things in one place & organized, I store these items in zip up file folders. I tend to label each section accordingly & write the year on the front with sharpie. I tend to go through these folders regularly & if I come across something outdated or unneeded, I just shred it.
Stay On Top of It
What I mean by this is, go through & organize your paperwork & paper clutter on a regular basis. Set aside time to go through that junk mail & coupons & determine what’s important or what’s not. I think paper clutter can become overwhelming when you haven’t gone through it in a while. I just picture a desk with piles & piles of papers & believe me, I know that overwhelming feeling that sight can bring. So, stay on top of everything & go through a little at a time routinely.
Unsubscribe Unsubscribe Unsubscribe
I can’t tell you how much junk mail both digitally & snail mail I receive. Not only is it a waste of paper but it makes getting the mail seem far more daunting than it needs to be. Place all your bills on autopay & unsubscribe from unwanted emails & catalogs. We’ve even had times where we get mail from the previous owners of our house. It’s a bit out of the way, but all you have to do is go to your local post office & inform them the person is no longer at said address.
Hopefully these tips & reminders help you keep your paper clutter downsized & tidy. Let me know in the comments ways you reduce paper clutter in your homes.
-B
Mind Beauty Simplicity 
yeah emails can get crazy! I once saw on tv that we should make sure to hit the ‘don’t subscribe’ button when signing up for things. that’s what i try to do but somehow they still seem to find my email.*sigh* and lately i’ve been subscribing via email to blogs to get notifications… but I try to unsubscribe to other emails but it’s sooo time consuming lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh that’s great advice there. i’ll have to do that. oh right, yes i know what you mean. i always still get tons of emails from random stores.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I definitely agree that everyone should invest in a paper shredder. I have one, and it’s helped so much.
LikeLiked by 2 people
yes! it’s a game changer. thanks for reading!
LikeLike
THIS. IS. PERFECT!!! Best advice for decluttering paperwork! Thank you for writing this post Brittany 😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
glad you liked it, amy!! 🙂 that is the best compliment! i’m flattered.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am embarrassed to admit I have over 13000 unread emails because I always forget to unsubscribe !!! This was such a great read.
Learning to declutter is so important & I definitely needed to read this!
LikeLiked by 2 people
girl,that’s a lot!! but i’ve def been there. unsubscribing is key!! thanks for reading!
LikeLike
hello! I’ll be honest, my mailbox looks TERRIBLE! I really need to tidy it up, thanks for sharing a great post. Saving for later. Alicia
LikeLiked by 1 person
no problem! thanks for reading, alicia!!
LikeLike
I’ve been trying all year to be better at this part — I at least throw junk mail away without checking it “just in case” anymore lol but papers that make it INTO my office? I’m still the worst at. I def need to get a paper shredder!
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes! the paper shredder is a must! thanks for reading.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great tips! Staying on top of it is the most effective for me and also my most procrastinated task lol. I hate organizing paperwork but I always feel so much better when I get it done. When I do the “only handle it once” method my house always feels so much cleaner and organized.
LikeLiked by 1 person
there you go! glad you liked the post and found it helpful.
LikeLike
This decluttering of paper was my mission over the Covid lockdown period. I have recycled literally 3 big bins of paper from my thirty years of teaching. I have also put my most treasured photos onto a disc so I can carry them out of my house easily if there’s ever a fire, god forbid. I have also shredded reams of paperwork after being executrix for my mother and sister’s estates. Now I’m down to one desk drawer of files and one accordion folder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WOW! that’s amazing. good for you. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m always fluttering digitally and do the pa per stuff a couple of times a year.
LikeLike
I love this post – paper clutter is one of my least favourite things so I’ve got a big file folder for documents to go ASAP if I’m keeping them. I also keep a bin where I shred documents, however, I’ve found using one of those blackout information stamps super helpful for little things with personal info such as addresses on envelopes as I found my bin would clutter too fast if I didn’t divide!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve definitely been on the digital train right now, but I also prefer to write things down as well because I find a paper trail makes the world of difference!
LikeLiked by 1 person
this a good point! thanks for reading.
LikeLike
These are some great suggestions to help reduce the amount of paper clutter you have. I love the art of putting pen to paper but I always make sure I recycle the loose paper.
Thank you for sharing these suggestions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m the same way sometimes – glad you liked the post. And thanks for reading. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person