@maya54, If losing paper were all it took to make my house orderly and clean, maybe I’d go for it (or just put the paper in nice, orderly containers LOL). But really, right now that statement makes me…uh oh, where the the laugh emoji go?
Sorry @twinsmama. It’s like saying that stopping eating heavily processed foods is all you need to do to lose weight. It’s an important part but it’s not the only part. For me it was the same with getting rid of paper. A vital part of obtaining order in my home. Not the only part. And it’s in my experience especially important to stop allowing the paper in to the extent possible. This means that
- all Mail is sorted over the recycling as soon as it’s out of the mailbox.
2)All bills are paid immediately online and then go in a paid bill box or if you really can’t do that then they go ( without extra fillers…envelopes ads etc…in the holding box - Any mail or other paper that can’t immediately be dealt with goes in a small box. This must be gone thru weekly. If it’s full you must deal with enough to make room in the box.
- everyone gets one medium sized ( boot box size ) container for all other paper memorabilia. Once it’s full you’ll need to discard something to get to put something else in.
This is one of those issues that I have 90% under control and the rest…not. In our empty nest, the kids were all permitted to keep one “memory” box of substantial size in our under the house storage space. Since they’re grown, they don’t accumulate more. None is settled in a permanent home so it makes sense to keep them for now. We don’t know if they’ll value the papers and ‘treasures’ in the future or whether they’ll be tossed as is but this works for us.
In terms of daily paper, I immediately recycle anything we don’t want/need. For the rest, I stack it up on the desk in the office. I’ve set up our bills to either auto pay or be due around the same time each month. Every 3-4 weeks I go through the pile, pay bills (checking my email for ebills) and process/toss anything else in the pile that I can. Then there are the things that just stay in the pile. Can’t quite figure out what to do with those things. That’s the 10% (ish).
We tend to toss more than others here as we believe we can generally find what we need online and, well, there could be some point where we wish we saved something it hasn’t happened yet and we’ve been married 32 years. We’re OK with the risk.
Good luck going through the paperwork that’s piled up. Once you get through it, hopefully it won’t accumulate for more than a short/manageable time. I’ve definitely used some of the strategies here for paper or other household issues. I like the 15 minute timer 1-2x a day or grabbing a stack while I watch TV.
I just want to suggest that instead of shredding yourself, set up a box to collect it and then take it to a shredding center or see if your bank is going to have a shred event. I save our papers up and take them to shredding event once or twice a year. It has been free everytime I’ve gone. No more shredders for me.
Where I live the local libraries run shredding event fundraisers a couple of times a year. You could look for one once you fill up some boxes, takes away the time to do the shredding yourself.
Yes, I mentioned shredding events and pay to shred rather than do it yourself in post #28.
Jmho, but holding paper, waiting for a shred event, means it’s still around.
I rip off the address and pile it for the shredder. Before ending that for they day, it gets shredded. Done. The rest (eg, a payment envelope or insert,) goes straight into a bag for recycling.
My problem is what’s left.
I’ll fill a bankers box or 2 over a year with things that need to be shredded. Doesn’t take up much room. I also ask myself " can this be found on the internet?" as a method of deciding whether or not I should keep it. I no longer take many photos on our trips. You don’t need them for memories. You can find anything on the internet now.
It’s the OLD paperwork that I find hard to throw away. Some examples: Old MD records I’ve actually needed to see what particular procedure was done, or shot was given once upon a time – before records were kept electronically. I have tons of paperwork from former volunteer or teaching positions, which I always think, maybe someday I might use again. I was once involved in a community legal issue that someone called to discuss because their community was going through the same issue 10 years later! (It was long discarded).
Yes, I can scan and file away electronically, and maybe even did so – on 5 1/4" floppies, or zip drives, or CD’s or DVD’s . Obviously I haven’t needed most of it. But maybe… someday…
I could fill a banker’s box in one purposeful session. You must not get much mail.
I usually keep two boxes. One is for papers I don’t need anymore that can be recycled. The other is papers that I want shredded. Everything else that I need gets stored in cabinets so there isn’t a large clutter of papers outside.
@ lookingforward : I don’t get a lot of mail that needs actual shredding. Most is just junk for recycling each week.
@kjofkw Anecdote here. A long time ago, when I lived in LA, a bad wind storm happened on trash night. It blew light trash, including mail, from one wealthy neighborhood into mine. The joke was people were finding bills, bank statements, all sort of personal paper, etc, laying around. Ever since then, I shred things with our names and other details. (Just the personalized parts.)
@lookingforward I always shred stuff that have names of my family or personal things that don’t need to be stored. My family taught me to protect my privacy as lots of people want your information for malicious purposes.
We shred mail containing financial or health info. But all mail with our name on it? Like the ads for the car wash place or dominos pizza? No way.