Paper Clutter- Are You Drowning in it?

For many of us paper is an essential part of our lives.  Mail, bills, vital documents, literature, memos contribute to paper clutter, if isn’t managed properly.   It becomes a tedious task sifting through the seas of paper, to find that one piece of paper to pay our taxes (as an example.)  Here are five tips for managing paper clutter, so it doesn’t drown you any longer.

Create a place for incoming and outgoing mail.   This is where mail is regularly delivered to once it has been taken out of the mailbox.   This spot can be anywhere in your home.  The key is to keep in the same place each time.  Next it’s time to…

Sort and purge mail daily, by doing this you reduce paper clutter drastically.  Toss out the junk mail immediately.  Sort mail by each member of the home, and if it needs your immediate attention.  Purge newspaper and magazines on a weekly or monthly basis to reduce piles from accumulating.  Another tip for managing paper work is to create an action center.

Designate an area to tackle paper clutter. An action center will allow to handle to immediately take action on paper clutter.  Some documents need to be tossed, shredded, recycled and scheduled.   A preferred place is a home office area, alternatively a desk or kitchen table would suffice.   Now that we have an action center, now we can…

Attack the paper clutter. Establish the habit of taking immediate action.  Does your paperwork need to be thrown out, shredded, paid, scheduled or filed?   After you determine the appropriate action, just do it.  There are some papers that need action for a future date.  These papers create a file for them.

These tips prevent you from sinking in the seas of paper clutter.  The sooner you put these steps into action the better.  As soon as you’re done reading this, do the following:  assign a home for mail, sort and purge through mail on a daily basis,  designate an action center, and finally attack.   Before you know it, you will conquered the seas of paper clutter.

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