Paper: An Overview

Oct 13, 2015
3 min read

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Oh boy! The big topic of paper! Everyday there is more and more paper to sift through. Bills, junk mail, papers from school, insurance documents, pictures, artwork from the kids, cards from your mom, and on and on! What do we do with all of this paper? Well, of course we stock pile it up in nice stacks throughout the entire house! And then when you are looking for that wedding invitation... what pile did it get drowned in??

I'm am here to help you solve your paper problem! Schedule a time to do this task. I suggest at least 2 hours to get started. You will repeat this process more than once before you get yourself and your family into the habit of this ritual. (If you are interested in purchasing the organizing items in this post, click on the picture).

To begin, you will start here:

Step 1: Go around your house and collect all of your paper into a box, or laundry basket. Go through every room: kitchen, bedrooms, laundry room, home office, family room, you get the picture. Collect mailers, coupons, school papers, owner's manuals, receipts, EVERY type of paper. You might be overwhelmed with the end result of how much paper you have. You might have two or three baskets full of paper. No need to panic, just by doing this step your house will already feel more clutter free, YAY!

Step 2: Creating your organized file basket. Before I go on to this step, you must schedule on your calendar to do this process once a week. You can set aside time on Sunday evening or Monday mornings if this is your time that you glance over your upcoming week and plan your days. (This is also a good time to make your grocery shopping list and meal plan for the week).

Now you need to organize all of these papers in to a file system. You can use a basket or file box. I use this pretty blue chic filing tote because I like the handles on it. I can take it with me and go through my papers and actionable items while I sit in the school parking lot waiting for my kids to get out of school or when I'm at a soccer tournament waiting between games.

Name your file tabs (Click HERE Hanging Files to purchase on Amazon). I use everybody's name so when the kids come home from school and they have papers for me to sign they file them in their own folder (this took some time and training, ha-ha). Also, I have a file for my business, actionable items (must be done this week), File (for to be filed into my household file system, i.e. paid bills, receipts, insurance forms, etc.), and one labeled "Sunday" which is for items that don't need my attention and I can look at them again next Sunday (fashion catalogs, junk mail, magazines, etc.).

To keep the files looking neat, I used my label maker (sometimes my handwriting gets sloppy, and who wants to look at sloppy handwriting when your trying to be productive).

Step 3: Dump out all of your paper on to the floor or table and start sorting and purging. Keep a trash can and your file box next to you as you sift through all of your papers. If there are items that you need to return to a friend i.e. a platter left behind from a party, or kids clothes left behind from a sleep over, you can put those items in your basket as your collect things throughout the house. Get a reusable grocery bag to put those items in, then put them into your car immediately so you can return them, a.s.a.p.

I also have clear file envelope that I keep in my car for all of those Bed Bath and Beyond coupons (those are the only coupons I use).

As I mentioned before, this task will take a good chunk of time the first time you attempt it. Be patient. Keep this file system out in a area that everyone can see so there is no excuse to kids losing papers, lost receipts, etc.