Organizing Paper Clutter
If you are decluttering your study, now may be the time to take control with organizing paper clutter. Do you find paper stacking up everywhere in your home? This could be in the form of bills, newspapers, working papers or pamphlets through your mail box. The options are endless with how we manage to accumulate paper.
The secret to keeping all that paper under control is to take action now. When you collect your mail from your mail box, don’t just leave it in a pile on the kitchen bench to be sorted later. If you open your mail straight away, keep what you need and throw away the rest right now.
If you get lots of junk mail delivered to your mail box, and you are sick of clearing away the junk mail every day, it might be a good idea to put up a big sign on your mail box saying no junk mail here please. After all, other people are causing you extra work that you ill need.
Your study is a classic area for accumulating stacks of paper. If you have a home study office, try and keep it paperless. Granted, there will still be important stuff that you need to keep in paper form, but in this digital age, a lot of our bills, credit card statements and shareholder statements now all come in electronic form.
Make a request to your service providers to have all your bills, credit card statements and shareholder statements sent electronically to you, if you haven’t already nominated for it to be sent in this format.
This simple strategy should help you eliminate a lot of paper that you would otherwise accumulate.
Printing out lots of things is also another no no in your study. Resist the urge and do your bit for the environment. Unless it is really necessary to print something out, as an alternative, save a copy on your computer if you need to refer to it later. Most of the time after we have printed something, we find that we no longer need it anyway.
Usually printed matter will eventually find its way in a huge stack of papers that we will have to sort later. Rather than getting to this state of having papers to sort, just don’t create those stacks of papers in the first place.
Newspapers are another big culprit. Have a central place where you collect your old newspapers and throw them away on a regular basis when they start to accumulate.
If you are one of those people who likes to jot down your errands and to do lists on scraps of paper, it might be time to change habits and carry a small notebook with you. That way, you can make a to do list to your heart’s content all in one central location.
That’s all for now with the paper debacle. If you follow the tips above, you should be well on your way to decluttering paper in your life.
Other Declutter Day Tips articles
Organize Your Filing Cabinet with Ease
Hire the Services of a Professional Home Office Organizer
Declutter Your Office before your boss does
