Organizing Paperwork
Don’t be afraid. It’s just paperwork. But paper smothers rock in that game “paper, scissors, rock” – remember? Sometimes you can be a rock in other areas of your life but struggle with organizing paperwork.
Paperwork that is all over your dining room table, in stacks by the phone, covering a beautiful oak desk you haven’t seen in years or even neatly filed away in filing cabinets (but dated back to 1972), and you have run out of room.
It’s overwhelming, and worst than that, it can impact how you feel about your home and, in some situations, even affect your health. How do you organize paperwork in your life?
Let’s Look at Some of the Reasons We Struggle With Organizing Paperwork
Often, we are swamped and glance through our mail before we toss it to “the pile.” We think we will get to it later, but before later arrives, we can be subconsciously negatively affected by this growing pile. In no time at all, there is SO much of it! Organizing paperwork is perceived to be more time-consuming as the pile grows and no fun to do. That can make it even less appealing next time, leading to a vicious cycle.
Most people don’t know what to do with their paperwork and are very afraid of making mistakes. The fear of tossing something we might need later is enormous.
For others, there is simply no system in place to do anything with the paperwork once it’s sorted.
Some people have created a system, even keep up on it rather well – but over time, they still end up with way more than they can comfortably store.
How to Tackle The Paperwork Pile
There is no time like the present to start organizing paperwork piles; seriously, there will not be any time magically added to your schedule later.
Don’t even get the pile started.
EVERY day, every single day, take the incoming paperwork – from the mail, from work, from the kids, and sort it immediately. Why let your dining room table and desk do the work that your recycle bin should be doing?
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that 80% of the paperwork we bring in will end up in the recycle bin, so why do you have to look at it until it gets there?
TOSS IT NOW!
Toss those envelopes too! They are not essential, and you will not need them.
And by tossing it, I mean recycle it, but you probably already know that…
Wow, whew! Take 2-7 minutes to do this every day, and your “piles” are going to be significantly reduced – making them way easier to deal with.
Create a System For Organizing Paperwork – What Paperwork Is Important to Keep?
Start by sorting paperwork into piles:
To read later Newspapers, magazines, catalogs. Keep a basket by the couch or your favorite reading chair to read during commercials or at your leisure. Or choose another location where you like to read – the point is to place them where they go and get them off the “pile.”
Bills Have a basket for all incoming invoices and place it wherever you pay bills – the desk, the table, doesn’t matter. Paying your bills once a month is optimal for many reasons, but if you do it more often, that’s fine – having your bills in one place when you are ready will be a time saver.
Receipts Put them in the basket with your bills to match them to your monthly credit card bill and then toss them or staple them to the bill. If it’s a cash purchase, put them with your monthly bill pile in case you want to make a note of the purchase for budget purposes; otherwise, toss. For big ticket items, staple the receipt to the warranty or instruction manual.
Charity requests Decide which ones you want to pay and toss the rest. The ones you wish to put in with your bills to be paid monthly.
Coupons If you don’t use them, recycle them. If you do use them, cut what you will use and TOSS the rest. Have a place to put these – usually by your grocery list or maybe in your purse or car. You can sort the grocery store coupons from the restaurant coupons and have a place for both.
Medical explanation of benefits (EOBs) These are not bills, but you might need to refer to them for various reasons. Keep them together in their place, separate from your bills.
- Use them to match up to the doctor’s bill when sent.
- Keep them to send with your medical savings reimbursement account if you have one.
- Once the doctor’s bill is paid and/or you have been reimbursed, there is no reason to keep the EOBs. If you absolutely want to keep them, do so for up to a year then toss them.
- All of the privacy policies that they send you annually – please toss ASAP.
Financial Information Bank and investment statements – keep these in their area – a desk or filing cabinet. Toss all of the privacy policies they send along with and the company reports. TOSS these the minute you get them (with the envelopes). If they send you a newsletter or flyer you want to read – then put them in your reading pile right away, not later.
Personal letters/cards Open them and TOSS the envelopes unless you need the return address. Read and enjoy your card, display it on the kitchen windowsill for a while or put it on the fridge- whatever makes you happy. Plan to enjoy the card for only a time, a month perhaps, and then toss it. Think about keeping one or two of them from people you like, but not all of them. Think about keeping the special ones with notes or letters, but not all of them. If you don’t like tossing the pretty pictures on them, then cut those out, and you can make gift tags or donate them to charities that might do this.
Your budding artist artwork Treat them similar to cards – display them- on the fridge for a time, in their rooms on a bulletin board, maybe a couple of picture frames for just this purpose- one can be displayed and represent the other six from that week or month and toss the rest. Kids don’t usually want to keep them; we do! Start an album or special decorative box for ones you do want to keep but be very selective. What about taking photos of them instead? Electronic storage takes up way less space.
Kids report cards and school work. Most schoolwork can go, and you can keep the report cards in a file for later. Some projects or reports might be worth saving, so have a box for such purposes.
So, are you getting the gist of how to organize paperwork by now? Here’s a summary:
- Immediately deal with any paper that enters your house.
- Have a place for various items, sort and keep what you need, and TOSS the rest. This will eliminate nearly 80% of what comes in your door.
- If you notice you are getting a bunch of mail that you didn’t ask for and don’t want to receive, here are a couple of things to do:
- If a return envelope postage is paid, send them back the order form and put a large note asking them to take you off their mailing list.
- Call their 800 number and make the same request.
- When ordering items through the mail, request the company NOT put you on their mailing lists.
Karen Brooks is an Inspired Organizer at her business, Master Your Disaster, LLC. She helps people and companies create organized and sacred spaces for a peaceful and harmonious life. Serving in McMinnville, Newberg, Lincoln City, Salem, Oregon, and surrounding areas. You can reach her at masteryourdisaster@gmail.com or call 503-881-7652