How To Organize All Your Paperwork
A Simple Way To Sort Through Paper Clutter Around You
May 17, 2009
Walk in through your door and what greets you is paper – a pile of mail, mostly junk, flyers, newspapers, and not to forget, bills, receipts, statements. The list just goes on and on. Even in the electronic age, paper seems to be everywhere, especially in our homes. Although paper does have a way of creeping up on us, it is easy and possible to deal with it efficiently and painlessly.
Here is an easy, effective way to organize all the paper around you right now!
- Sort - Go through the entire house, picking up all the paper that you see; every single item of paper - newspapers, bills, flyers, takeaway menus, mail, everything. Skim through all of them quickly and start putting them into separate piles: newspapers and magazines, bank, credit card, medical, home, retail, junk mail and so on.
- Personalize - Make your piles according to the kind of paperwork you have to deal with on a regular basis. Also, don’t keep flyers, thinking you would need them. Note down the phone numbers of the services you might need and let the flyer go. From magazines and newspapers, clip the articles you want to keep and donate the rest to your doctor’s clinic or simply, give away.
- Organize - Now the fun part starts! Since you have all your piles of paper neatly placed in front of you, its time to file or organize them, so that you have a system in place to put all your current and future paperwork in. Get some A4 size Ring Binders, clear plastic pockets, and colored dividers, and a three-hole punch. Use the dividers and the pockets to categorize the type of papers in the Binder.
- Label – Label the folders Financial, Medical, Home, Education, Shopping or Retail, and Personal or according to your own unique needs. So, in the folder labeled, ‘Financial’, you could have dividers labeled Bank, Credit Card, Taxes and Mortgages and so on. Put small receipts and papers that can’t be punched into the clear plastic pockets, punch the rest and file accordingly.
- Keep At It- This is the key to everything. Now that you have a foolproof, organized system, keep it up. Don’t let the paper sneak up on you and become uncontrollable. As soon as you get your mail, flyers or what have you, do one of two things - File or Trash. Make sure that you go through your folders periodically to review filed papers and see if anything needs to be discarded.
Make it a ritual to review your filing system and keep it clean and hassle-free. Enjoy being able to deal with all your papers and documents and finding that important paper without having to turn the house upside down. As you’ve seen, it is easy, simple and quick. All it needs is some motivation and a little time and voila, you have all your paperwork organized and sorted through.
Related Articles : For more on decluttering and organizing, do read Declutter Your Space and How to Tidy Up the House in 30 Minutes .
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