Tag: organized

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 crumpled 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. Here are 5 Ways To Combat Paper Clutter

The Shredder Is Your Best Friend

I strongly recommend everyone invest in a high quality shredder. 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 discarding these items. I usually keep a small bin next to the shredder as a easy catch all for any unwanted papers. Once the bin is relatively full, I’ll spend some time shredding those papers. It’s quite the officiant process & really helps in the cut down of unwanted papers.

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 I tend to go through these folders regularly & if I come across something outdated or unneeded, I just shred it.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