It can be so hard to manage paper organization in your household! Between mail that comes in daily, magazines and newspapers that need reading, and random notes you write throughout the week, there is a lot to clean up on a regular basis. It can also be hard to figure out what to do with some of the papers. You’re left with random stacks of paper all over the house and NO IDEA what to do with any of it! I’ve got some tips for you today that really helped me get a hold of my paper clutter. They are clear, easy steps that will get rid of the mess of papers you inevitably develop over time. Read on to find out how to deal with every piece of paper that enters your house and how to keep it organized and in one place from now on. 

Paper. A lovely thing, but oh, so hard to keep in one place. 

We have different sizes of paper, different colours of paper, different styles of paper…

And it gets EVERYWHERE!

Trying to manage the large amounts of information and memories that we scribe onto random papers can make anyone crazy!

But what if I told you that four simple steps can get you a clean and organized space, free of paper clutter? 

Take it from someone who writes constantly– it is indeed possible! And honestly, it’s not even difficult once you get the hang of it. 

Personally, I have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with paper. I enjoy writing with all my heart, but after a couple of weeks, I would always end up overwhelmed by the obscene amount of papers, big and small, that I had accumulated.

I had it falling out of binders and books. It was filling up my desk drawers. I would even find them sticking  to walls or under my bed. It was getting ridiculous!

So I came up with a system that would stop my mess from getting too big. I did some research and learned about what should be kept and what can be tossed. Ideas were made about what to do with random notes and memorabilia, and I was ready to try it out!

After a few weeks of practice, I was really noticing the difference.

Nowadays, I never have any problems with paper organization. I have one place for all of my papers. Additionally, I no longer have to waste time searching for what I need. A quick five minute search is all it will take.

And now, I want to share my paper organization system with you so that you can (hopefully) find some peace of mind in the midst of your paper pile. Try it out and see if it works for you! 

Paper Organization Tips to Eliminate Clutter Forever

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Before You Start: Have the right tools ready

 Like most things, if you want it done right, you need to have the right tools for the job. Don’t worry, the stuff I’m about to mention is not expensive, and you don’t have to buy it more than once. The stuff I bought 10 years ago still works for me no problem! If money is an issue, however, I will also give you some ways that you could accomplish your paper organization by using recycled things around your home.

Here are the things you will need before you start: 

A filing cabinet, a filing bin or a filing folder

Ok, all of these things are the same thing, just different sizes. It’s basically like order a small, medium, or large fries at McDonald’s. But before you automatically assume you need the biggest size (which would be the filing cabinet), you should consider how much paper you will actually need to keep.

It might help for you to read through the rest of this post first to get an idea of how much paper you will probably be tossing. Typically, unless you are running a paper-heavy business from home or are keeping tax papers for your many, many kids, a filing cabinet might be overkill.

A filing folder is the smallest and most portable, so it’s helpful for people who are single or  married and often need to bring their papers with them outside of the house. However, this filing system can be a tad annoying when you are trying to put papers in.

I would personally recommend a small filing bin for paper organization.

I’ve had the same one for ten years, and even in my hoarding years it was never too small. That being said, the other benefit of a filing bin is that if you do end up needing more space, it would be easy to just buy a second one and put it beside the first.

With a filing cabinet, you might end up with too much space, but with a filing bin you will always have just enough space. You can buy these things at most office stores, or you can get it on Amazon:

On the other hand, if you really do not want to spend your money on these items, you can make your own with recycled cereal boxes! Just flip the box inside out, tape it together, cut one side open, and voila! You have your own small bin! Every time you need more space, just grab another cereal box and add it on. It won’t be as sturdy as a filing bin, but it will still work! 

12 Folders labelled by month and a few extra folders

You can decide how many you want. Basically, these are going to be your categories that you will use in your paper organization, so you know best how many categories you will want.

For tax purposes, you should at least have 12 folders that are all labelled by month. I have four additional folders after that for categories I will mention later on.

If you’re wanting to save money, just start collecting the free folders that people give away at staff meetings, public events, and things like that. It takes time to collect, but they usually come free of charge.

Notebooks

Some notes you have on random papers would be best scribed to  a notebook, where you can find everything in one place. I use two: an agenda  and a quote book.

All of the quotes, addresses, and ideas I collect go in these two books so it’s easy to find later. You might want more, or maybe less. It depends on what kind of stuff you typically write about. If you don’t want to spend anything, you could just use your phone to record information in your memos, instead. 

A Shredder (Optional)

To be honest, I don’t have enough personal mail to justify getting a shredder. I can just rip up my confidential papers into tiny squares by hand, instead.

However, if you have a lot more sensitive information that you are tossing, a shredder is a good investment to consider. I don’t have any personal recommendations since I don’t use one myself. 

Ok, now that you’ve got all of your tools ready to go, you are ready to tackle those papers! Grab a cup of coffee, get some pleasant music going, and settle in to an organization session! 

Step 1: Do a House Walk and collect every piece of paper

The first thing you need to do for your paper organization is make sure that you have absolutely every piece of paper in the house.

It’s the worst when you’ve finally finished putting everything away only to discover that you missed a bunch of stuff and have to do it again. It’s also easier to come up with categories when you have all the information (your papers) in front of you.

So do yourself a favour and make sure you grabbed all of the paper you’ve got lying around, big or small. Grab magazines, flyers, receipts, post-it notes, and any other type of paper you’ve got. Then put it all in one space. For example, you can use a table, but I’ve actually found a large space on the floor is actually easier. Things can be more spread out, which makes categorizing a lot simpler.

Once it’s all in a pile in front of you, move on to the next step! 

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Step 2: Go through the whole pile and throw out any obvious trash

Set up a recycling bin or an empty box in front of you, and start by simply looking for anything that can easily be thrown out. Don’t try to start categorizing yet, because it can be really overwhelming to do two paper organization steps at once. You are looking for two types of trash: scrap paper and garbage. Scrap paper is anything that still has space to write on, like the back of a printed piece of paper. This can be used to write on or brainstorm, so put that in its own pile for you to use later. The garbage is stuff that doesn’t require you to do anything with before throwing it out. Just toss it and you’re good to go!

This step shouldn’t take very long since it’s easy decisions. Now, onto the harder stuff…

Step 3: Go through the papers that require action before throwing them out

Sometimes, there are papers that you want to throw out, but you have a small piece of information that is still sort of important to keep. Instead of keeping the whole paper, you just have to put the information in a more permanent place. Then you can toss the paper itself. Again, you are still not filing anything. We won’t do that until the last step.

Here are some things you can be watching for:

Receipts

If the receipt is for something you bought with a credit or debit card, you can tear it up and throw it out, no problem! Your transaction is recorded on your card’s statements, so it doesn’t need to be kept.

If it is a receipt of something you bought with cash, however, DON’T THROW IT OUT! It needs to be kept for tax purposes (they fall under the category of “supporting documents” for your taxes). If you have a place to record your expenses, now is a good time to write it down, as well.

Random Notes

These can be so tricky because they could really be about anything! Take a look at what it is you wrote and try to come up with a suitable place for it. For example, when I write addresses, ideas, or appointments, I transcribe them into my agenda. This is the place I would naturally look to find out this information, so this is a good permanent place to put it.

On other occasions, I tend to write a lot of quotes I like. Because of my obsession over collecting quotes, I decided to have a notebook dedicated to them (I’m on my second one now). Whenever I see a random quote I wrote down, I transfer it to my quote book.

Whatever it is you tend to write about, thing of a place that might be suitable for it to go permanently.

Magazines, Flyers, and Newspapers

Unless you are keeping these things for craft purposes, I follow the three R’s: Read, Record, Recycle! First, take some time to read your collection. Second, record any information you want to keep. For example, you could take a picture, write it down, or simply pull out a page you like. Lastly, with the leftover stuff you don’t want, recycle it!

Memorabilia

Ok, this one is insanely hard to manage sometimes because you have to take into account your feelings more than the practicality of that particular piece of paper.

It might be ticket stubs, travel maps, plane tickets, or letters and cards. Whatever it is, I feel you- it’s hard to get rid of.

But here is where you need to decide what you will truly want to look at again.

And here is where I get a little harsh: if you (a) NEVER read your letters and cards and (b) don’t have a nice way to display your memorabilia, don’t keep it.

I’ve seen examples of ways to display ticket stubs (among other things) that are really beautiful, so if you want to do that, it’s a great reason to keep that particular stuff.

For me, I don’t care much for tickets, but I definitely have a soft spot for letters. My rule of thumb is to throw it out if it is a card without a personal message. Otherwise, I typically keep it.

But don’t just hide it away!

I keep my letters in a box that is on display in the living room. I am constantly taking them out and sharing them with people or just enjoying them alone. If you’re not someone who will ever look at your letters again, you don’t need to keep them!

Extra Tips!

Sometimes, I prefer to put the information I have on the computer. I might have a memo where the information fits or a Google Drive document that works. This is always an option!

Some things in this category take a long time to write or read or transcribe. I’ll sometimes choose to put those in an ‘action’ pile and save them for a later day (but not MUCH later!)

Step 4: File the papers that are left over

Now that you’ve tossed out all of the stuff you no longer need, it’s time to figure out where you’re going to put the remaining papers. For this step, you don’t have to ask yourself whether or not you want to keep it. If it has made it this far in the process, it means you’ve already decided to keep it.

You simply need to put it somewhere.

It is likely that, at this point, the papers that are left are mostly needed for tax purposes, but there are a few other categories you might have, as well.

To help you out, I will go through the list of files that I have in my own bin, as it will likely be similar to what you will want in yours.

Receipts

Like I said before, you only need to keep records of transactions made in cash, as your credit and debit card statements will record other spending. Your receipts can be placed in whatever month you got them in. If your receipt is from January, but them in the folder that says “January”.

Bills

Like receipts, bills go in the month that you received them. They keep track of your monthly expenses, so they need to be kept for tax purposes. It is also handy to keep them in case you have problems with stolen cards or inaccurate statements.

Ongoing Applications

If you have any government or program applications you are working on, or you think you might be asked for that information, it’s best to keep it all together. When I was working abroad, I kept every document that I used to get the Work VISA until I had returned to Canada. It is best not to chance it with those things, so keep it all together in one folder.

Certifications

This is another one that you will likely just keep forever. This file is where I put any school records, training certification, or things like that.

Proof of Membership or Ownership

If you are a member of a gym or club, or if you own property or an expensive item, it is best to keep a record of them somewhere. You never know when you might be required to show proof of payment.

Files of Previous Tax Years

When you do your paper organization for your taxes each year, you can’t just forget about it after that. In Canada, you are supposed to keep all tax-related items for six years in case you need to be audited. I like to keep mine for ten to be on the safe side (and because the Math is easier hehe).

Here’s a Tip: instead of putting the papers away and forgetting them for ten years, take a red pen and write what year you can toss them on the top right corner of the page. This keeps you from having to go through every paper each year to figure out if it’s the year to toss it. It’s such a time saver!

Now You’re Finished! Enjoy Your New, Uncluttered Space!

This system has so many benefits, but one of my favourites is the time saved searching for documents. With all of your papers in one place, you only have to look in one area for documents you need. If, after 5 minutes, you still can’t find the desired document, you can be confident that you simply don’t have it. You know there are no more places to look. So take some time out of your day to follow these steps in paper organization and enjoy a paper system you can actually understand! Happy Organizing!

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