Paper has always been a huge problem in our house. There was a time when our kitchen drawer was full of take-out menus and coupons that were barely used. My younger sister has a huge cupboard that is stuffed with hundreds of paintings she has made over the last few years. The storage of our entryway bench is always full of newspapers and magazines that often peek out. Although there’s a dedicated cabinet in our house for all the important documents, it isn’t enough to store all the extra paperwork that keeps coming in regularly.
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Paper makes me feel more overwhelmed than all other forms of clutter. As much as I hate paperwork, I’m always afraid to throw anything away because I fear I might need it someday. My mother literally had to school me to get rid of all the unnecessary paperwork because it was doing us no good. Going paperless is what I aim for in the upcoming year but for now, my focus is to get rid of the overwhelm caused by paper clutter.
Paper clutter is a hurdle that almost every household faces. There’s a crazy amount of paperwork flowing in on a regular basis in the form of junk mail, bills, receipts, tax & insurance documents, coupons, invitations & birthday cards and manuals. You take a pile of paperwork out to the trash and there’s another one already waiting for you at the door.
If you’re finding yourself stressed out with all the paperwork and the overwhelm is becoming too much to deal with, here are a few tips that I’ve rounded up to help you fight it:
1. Stop Junk Mail At The Door
When I was dealing with the non-stop inflow of paperwork in my home and couldn’t figure out how to deal with it, my Dad suggested I work on reducing the junk mail because it’s the easiest thing to tackle. I called the news agency that supplied newspapers at my home and asked them to cancel the subscription of one of the two newspapers I used to get daily. Noticing that we were receiving too many magazines that were barely even read by anyone in our home, cancelling their subscriptions wasn’t too hard a decision to take.
My kitchen drawer was overly stuffed with flyers and catalogs and they were nothing but plain clutter. I called many of the retailers and politely asked them to stop dropping them into my mailbox.
2. Deal With Incoming Mail Right Away
Packaging of your online orders often amount to a major part of the clutter in your home. You receive a parcel, put it on the dining table, open it 2 days later and forget to dispose of the empty box, bills and bubble wraps.
The best way to deal with the clutter that comes with online orders is to open them right away. I have kept a waste bin at my door to dispose of the packaging immediately after dealing with the parcel.
I tear open the mail envelopes as soon as I receive them and put it where it belongs. The important documents and paperwork are put into the mail organizer or the filing cabinet and the unimportant ones go straight to the trash. Any paperwork carrying any personal information like bank documents, old insurance papers and tax documents are shredded away when I get time.
3. Trash The Takeout Menus And User Manuals
Gone is the time when you had to keep a separate folder for all the takeout menus and user manuals for the appliances you own. Today, every good eatery has made its menu available online which is easily accessible at a click. Also, you can find user manuals for all the gadgets you own on the websites of the manufacturers.
4. Digitize
Digitization has totally changed the way we handle paperwork today. Almost every piece of paper can be digitally scanned and stored on your computer. Use a good-quality, affordable scanner to scan documents that you want to keep and discard their physical copies. Paperwork like old photographs, insurance documents, tax filing documents can easily be scanned and stored in digitally secured folders.
5. Declutter Paperwork Regularly
In order to avoid the overwhelm that comes with trying to deal with a lot of paperwork in one go, you must form a habit of doing a quick clean-up at least once a month.
Look through the kids’ artwork and projects to find anything that isn’t needed anymore. Go through the bills and receipts and trash the ones that have been paid. Also sort through the pile of gift bags to find pieces that are torn, stained, old or unfit for packaging. Take a tour of your home office to find old journals, notes, calendars and excess mailing envelopes and trash them right away.
If you have a huge collection of old newspapers and magazines that you don’t need anymore, take them to a paper recycling centre or to a scrap buyer.
6. Get Creative With Organizing Paperwork
Paperwork, if left unorganized, can be a source of great chaos in your home. Get smart with organizing, and make paper organizers a part of your life to be able to stay clutter-free.
For paperwork that is highly confidential, use a filing cabinet with a secure lock system. Use as many folders as needed to keep the documents nicely organized. You can get a desk file organizer for your home office and a mail organizer for your living room. I also bought this magazine rack years ago to organize the newspapers and magazines. You can also go for a simple desk organizer that doesn’t take up a lot of space.
Although I’m working day in and day out to make mine a paperless home, I believe that I can’t do away with paper completely.
Despite the fact that paper is very much a part of your life and is here to stay, it’s within your power to make sure that you never feel overwhelmed by paper clutter using the tips listed above.