Without a doubt, the biggest clutter problem that faces people these days is paper. It comes in through snail mail every day, from the kids bringing forms home, from items we print from our computer, notes that we make to ourselves in our car or while sitting in the doctor’s office, and just about everywhere we go.
Out of frustration, sometimes people just put it in a pile on the counter or desk and then the next day add more and then the next day more, etc. until the pile can’t stand on its own anymore. The “tipping point” is when the pile starts falling over.
When it gets to this point, most people start going through the paper and files from the bottom up worrying that the papers on the bottom would be the most urgent. Sounds logical enough until you realize that if there’s anything on the bottom that needed attention, you mostly likely would have had a call or crisis to bring it to your attention. Nine times out of ten, most things take care of themselves by just becoming obsolete.
The more efficient way to sort when you have larges piles of paper is to start at the top and by handling the most recent and to include each new day’s papers with the process. That way when you do get to the bottom, most of which probably just needs to be filed or tossed, you’ll be on top of everything. Starting at the bottom and continuing to pile new incoming papers on top just adds to the feeling that you’re never quite caught up.
To stay in control of paper, set up a system where you make decisions each day for 5 minutes. It doesn’t matter what time of day as long as it becomes part of every day. Paper can be divided into just a few categories: Toss / shred / file / needs action.
If you want to spread it around more, you can also have a stack for someone else to review and handle (read as husband or significant other). There’s no reason why all the paper in the house is exclusively your responsibility. If your children are old enough, they might even be able to take responsibility for some of it. With a little investment of your time, you could assign older children these tasks, helping take some stress from you and teaching them responsibility that will serve them well as they begin to deal with the same issue.
Don’t surrender to the battle that paper presents every day. Divide and conquer!
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