It’s been a while, but I’m back with another Messy to Minimal episode this week! We’ve gone through the living room, the bathroom & the kitchen so far & today we will be tackling the horror that is paper clutter. This was a topic that as requested to me on Twitter & I don’t blame you! Paperwork can become a chaotic mess if you let it & organizing it all becomes a tedious job nobody wants. I’ll be sharing with you ways I keep the paper clutter to a minimum & stay organized.
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 I tend to go through these folders regularly & if I come across something outdated or unneeded, I just shred it.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.
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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
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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.
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I definitely agree that everyone should invest in a paper shredder. I have one, and it’s helped so much.
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yes! it’s a game changer. thanks for reading!
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THIS. IS. PERFECT!!! Best advice for decluttering paperwork! Thank you for writing this post Brittany 😃
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glad you liked it, amy!! 🙂 that is the best compliment! i’m flattered.
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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!
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girl,that’s a lot!! but i’ve def been there. unsubscribing is key!! thanks for reading!
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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
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no problem! thanks for reading, alicia!!
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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!
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yes! the paper shredder is a must! thanks for reading.
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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.
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there you go! glad you liked the post and found it helpful.
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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.
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WOW! that’s amazing. good for you. 🙂
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I’m always fluttering digitally and do the pa per stuff a couple of times a year.
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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!
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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!
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this a good point! thanks for reading.
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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.
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I’m the same way sometimes – glad you liked the post. And thanks for reading. 😊
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