BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Organization Paper Organization: How do you stop paper clutter?

Paper is everywhere, sometimes we have no choice and have to accept it, but often we can refuse to allow it in.

How do you stop paper from entering your life to start with?

This question is from the most recent How to Organize Newsletter (It's easy to subscribe, just go here How to Organize Newsletter and scroll to the bottom.) The theme for this issue was paper organization. If you want some great tips on how to organize and manage paper check out the latest article: Paper Organization Made Easy

Paper is my nemesis, it is always victorious, I am so afraid of throwing something away that I may need again. I am also very sentimental keeping cards given to me for YEARS! Thank goodness for Rubbermaid bins and a basement. Look forward to working my way through your articles.

Hi Diana,

If you ever have questions about your paper challenges feel free to ask away. Paper doesn't have to be your nemesis. Although I completely understand how it can feel like it is. Dealing with paper is time consuming if you don't have a system in place. Every piece represents a decision that has to be made. Let a few days of incoming paper pile up and it can become overwhelming.

The good news is that you don't have to clear away your backlog before you can make progress. People often think the have to deal with all the paper they already have, but that simply isn't true. You can make a fresh start at anytime and implement a system that will support you going forward.

I find for me that having folders by topic helps out greatly. That way if I have a spare hour I can sit down with my "Napa Valley" folder, put up my notes from my trip there, and get it done. Then that folder gets recycled, my wine site has fresh content, and the time was well spent!

You are singing my song Lisa!

Topics are so helpful. They save time and energy. When you can look at something and immediately know the topic, you can jump right to the associated tasks that much faster.

Using topics is one way of applying the 'put like with like' principle.

This summer I got rid of most paper from 10 years - newspapers, magazines, cardboard went to the neighborhood recycling bin. I even recycled old holiday and birthday cards.

When I get a bill I only save what I need and throw out the flyers and envelope it came in.

My writings are in folders by years before 2000, and since then by topic on a tall bookcase next to my computer. I do save a paper copy of every article I've written and past notes from teaching in topic folders. All in that tall bookcase.

Dear Susan -

Kudos to you for such a massive cleansing effort! I bet you felt fantastic when that was done

I did the same thing as Susan about a year ago and it was great! Reduced a two drawer filing cabinet to a single file box. Most of the files I needed got scanned and filed on my computer.

At the same time I signed up for paperless billing for any vendor that offered the service - which reduces the paper clutter very quickly.

Whenever possible I like to scan and store anything I need to keep on my computer. I only keep paper copies if tax or business related.

Dear Allison -

I'm signed up for every single autopay that I can. I am a strong proponent of autopays. That way I don't have to worry about missing a bill. They simply pay.

I admit I am holding out for my cable company to offer me an incentive to stop getting paper bills, something like free credit or something After all it is going to save them money! But I may give up and just have them e-bill.

I want to get my bank and credit card statements in paper, I manually reconcile those and want the paper copy in my hands while I do that. I need those all for tax reasons, so I am still holding on to paper in those areas.

I still get my bank statement in paper but I would be more than happy to get in a PDF format so I could print in needed for taxes. My bank does not offer paperless bank statements but I am happy they no longer send the processed checks.

I am on the fence for autopay - I have had some vendors who continue to bill me after I canceled so I have become very careful about who gets my bank or credit card number.