As I mentioned in this post last week, my goal for January is getting control of our paper clutter. Last week I tackled getting my receipts under control. And I have to say, my new little organized system is really working well. If I don’t put the receipts that I need to keep in there right away, I take a little time when I have a minute in the car to go through my wallet and file them away in my receipt holder.
Next up…finally figuring out my “In Box” situation and what to do with all the paper that comes into my house. I’ve tried all different ways to tackle this issue.
One system I tried was this…
You can see how organized it was and how functional that worked out!
I realized that I needed more space for my sorting system and I also really need to see what I need to go through. For me, if it’s all tucked away, it’s like outta sight outta mind. I completely forget about it.
So I decided that I just needed to tighten up my system. I decided to get a larger basket for my “In Box” as my dumping grounds when mail or papers come into the house. Things to be shredded go either directly into the shredder or on the shelf right above the shredder for when I have a minute to get to it. And anything that doesn’t need to be shredded and that we don’t need goes straight to the recycling.
The key to this system will be going through it every day or two and putting mail away in its’ designated spots…
- A small basket for bills with a calendar print out that lists all our bills and when they are due.
- A bulletin board that holds restaurant coupons, invites, important info to have at a glance, and the gym childcare and class schedule.
- A basket in the family room where all our magazines and catalogs go until I have a minute to go through them.
- Our Binder system (which I’ll go into more next week).
- A basket for “to be filed” items in our office.
Every Sunday I try to go through our bills basket to pay anything that needs to be paid, and now I’ll go through the “In Box” for anything that needs attention that week that I might have missed. And once my “to be filed” basket gets full, I’ll take some time to put those papers in our office file cabinets.
I have grand ideas for a downstairs closet to become our “Command Center” but until I get to it, I think this will help our incoming paper clutter.
In the January 2012 Better Homes and Gardens magazine, there are some great, simple ideas on dividing up and managing the paper clutter:
Having a…
- Central In Box
- Do Now File or Box
- Do Later File or Box
- Pending File or Box
- A Waste Station with a shredder, trash can and recycling
You can check out more great ideas here for controlling the paper clutter.
bhg.com
I’m hoping this is what will work for me and my family. Everyone is different and what works for one person might not work for another. The key is to finding a system that works for you. And it’s ok if you have to try a few different options before settling on the system that works best for you.
{At least that’s what I keep telling myself :) }
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