Who's ready for this one?
If you're a person, you probably have piles
and piles and piles and piles
of random paper clutter all over your house.
You might have a good idea of what is where,
but is that really where it belongs?
Doubt it!
About a year ago I got to researching the
best way to organize and maintain the paper
clutter in my house. It took a good day's worth
of organizing but I felt so relieved after.
It's about that time again.
Find a System!
I keep all of my important paperwork in this
cheap little box I got at Walmart.
One of my favorite tips from my research
last year was to keep file folders for each month,
instead of categorized by company or subject.
At the beginning of each month, I clear out that file
and start adding my new bills/papers to it as it comes.
Find a strategy that works for you, something
you can keep up with or your paper clutter will
come back for you!!!
What to keep? What to toss?
The first step to decluttering is to go through
the entire house and gather every piece of loose paper
you can find. This includes mail stuck in junk drawers,
receipts, flyers, school work, bills, menus, everything.
Keep: Birth certificates, health records, insurance policies,
passports, deeds, titles, warranty receipts, tax records for the
past 7 years, will, citizenship papers, bills for the past year,
bank statements for the past year, investment papers for the past
year, loans, anything else you think you should probably hold on to.
Organize!
Throw away the trash!
Sort your "keep" pile into their own categories depending
on how your file folder is set up.
Jot down numbers off of flyers and toss them.
Clip what you want to keep out of newspapers
or magazines and toss those.
Don't quit until every piece of paper is taken care of.
Rejoice!
You will feel so much better when it's done.
And if you have found a good system, the
next time you do this will be a lot easier!
About a year ago I got to researching the
best way to organize and maintain the paper
clutter in my house. It took a good day's worth
of organizing but I felt so relieved after.
It's about that time again.
Find a System!
I keep all of my important paperwork in this
cheap little box I got at Walmart.
One of my favorite tips from my research
last year was to keep file folders for each month,
instead of categorized by company or subject.
At the beginning of each month, I clear out that file
and start adding my new bills/papers to it as it comes.
Find a strategy that works for you, something
you can keep up with or your paper clutter will
come back for you!!!
What to keep? What to toss?
The first step to decluttering is to go through
the entire house and gather every piece of loose paper
you can find. This includes mail stuck in junk drawers,
receipts, flyers, school work, bills, menus, everything.
Keep: Birth certificates, health records, insurance policies,
passports, deeds, titles, warranty receipts, tax records for the
past 7 years, will, citizenship papers, bills for the past year,
bank statements for the past year, investment papers for the past
year, loans, anything else you think you should probably hold on to.
Organize!
Throw away the trash!
Sort your "keep" pile into their own categories depending
on how your file folder is set up.
Jot down numbers off of flyers and toss them.
Clip what you want to keep out of newspapers
or magazines and toss those.
Don't quit until every piece of paper is taken care of.
Rejoice!
You will feel so much better when it's done.
And if you have found a good system, the
next time you do this will be a lot easier!
I keep all of my bills in a giant binder and then all warranties of products in one folder, all household item receipts in another and so on and so forth. But I really like this idea more. I think I'm going to try this one out, I really like the idea of going by the month rather than category!
ReplyDeleteThat's a useful post, Kelley.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was struggling to manage all my bills and monthly payments, a website named Finovera, really helped me a lot.
Finovera provides an online bill pay service which will pay your bills online and will track your expenses.
Track household bills online using a safe and ultra-secure billing system, which will definitely get you rid of pain!!
Finovera will send you an alert if a bill is unusually high or if you need to transfer funds to cover it. Finovera is absolutely free to use and always will be!!!