The never-ending supply of paper coming into your home on a daily basis is the biggest proof of the fact that paper contributes to the maximum amount of clutter in your home. And if you disagree, take a step back and answer these questions with utmost honesty.
How much junk mail do you receive every month?
What’s the number of bills and receipts you have kept in your junk drawer or your handbag?
Do you ever trash the outdated invitations, coupons and take-out menus?
Although it’s practically impossible to fully eliminate paper from your life, you need to understand the major sources of paper clutter in your home to be able to figure out a way to tackle it. If you have an organization system in place to avoid the overwhelm caused by paper clutter, you might still have to take a hard look at the sheer amount of paperwork that keeps flowing in on an everyday basis.
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Paper isn’t just newspapers, magazines and other important documents. It’s also those newsletters, catalogs, old envelopes, outdated flight tickets, old instruction manuals, calendars, journals, outdated theatre tickets and old to-do lists that you have unintentionally piled up on thinking that they might become useful someday.
Here’s the list of some common sources of paper clutter that can make your home look more cluttered than it actually is:
1. Bills And Receipts
Many people cite bills and receipts as the biggest source of paper clutter in their home. And I can totally relate because this was the case in my home as well until I had to find ways to deal with it.
You keep accumulating bills and receipts from gas stations, restaurants, utility service providers and grocery stores. Months later, as you come across these bills crumbled up in a pocket of your handbag, you are left trying to figure out why you’ve kept them till date.
It’s time for you to go all out to get rid of the clutter caused by old bills and receipts before they take over your home. Make it a weekly habit to sort through the bills lying in your bags, wallets, junk drawers and mailbox. You’ll realize that you don’t need to hold on to any of these bills, and the ones that are important can either be stored digitally or are available online.
2. Newspapers And Aging Magazines
While newspapers and magazines are easily available online these days, most people still like to go the traditional way and subscribe to their physical copies. Even though it’s a personal choice, newspapers and magazines often end up contributing excessively to paper clutter. I’m yet to meet a person who doesn’t have at least a few piles of newspaper clutter resting in a corner of their home office or garage or some other corner of the house.
The best way to fight the clutter caused by newspapers and magazines is to unsubscribe from all the excess subscriptions while only sticking to the ones that you absolutely love. Newspapers that are already sitting in your home can be sold at a scrap disposal store or a recycling centre near you.
3. Medical Reports And Documents
When I asked some of the people around me about the biggest sources of paper clutter in their home, a lot of them cited medical records as one. As someone who has a separate cabinet for all the medical scans and documents of my parents, I know how overwhelming it can be to keep them organized.
Although medical reports are made available online, you always want to keep their physical copies just in case you may need them. Make sure that you don’t let these documents clutter every corner and cabinet in your home. Use a filing cabinet or a little shelf specifically meant to house your health-related documents.
4. Kids’ Artwork
If you are a mother of kids that are still in their school-going age, this is likely to be a major source of paper clutter in your home. The kids’ room in your house is probably stuffed with their homework, craftwork and artwork, and it won’t be easy for you to declutter it all because you certainly don’t want to upset your kids.
The only way to fight the clutter caused by kids’ schoolwork is to sit them down and politely ask them to get rid of any paperwork they’ve outgrown or don’t need. Help them go through all the paper clutter and make sure that you ask them before getting rid of anything that belongs to them.
5. Junk Mail
Even though the amount of junk mail you receive has reduced over the years, it still contributes to a lot of paper clutter in your home. Of all the mail you receive, barely 10-20% is important and the rest is practically trash. Many marketers still like to send out physical copies of newsletters and catalogs, and bills and receipts still arrive in mail.
While you cannot hope to cut the clutter caused by junk mail, there are things you can do to prune it down to minimum. If possible, look for the relevant phone numbers to call the marketers individually and tell them to stop sending the newsletters and catalogs.
You can also spare a few minutes every day to deal with the mail clutter as and when it arrives. I usually just open my mail at the door and put it where it belongs – in the trash, mail organizer or the filing cabinet. Works like a charm!
Now that you know what the major sources of paper clutter are, it’s time to deal with it as quickly as possible. Besides clearing out the paper clutter, make sure that you create a system to organize the rest of the paperwork so that it doesn’t stray out of its designated place. You can also limit the space you give to the paper clutter so that it doesn’t get out of control.