Paper Trail
Tips on How to Get Rid of Paper Clutter
Tips on How to Get Rid of Paper Clutter
Does your home office desk seem to be drowning in piles upon piles of paper? Do mountains of old receipts, documents, and printouts seem to come from out of nowhere in unexpected places in your house? Do you constantly never know where important documents are because they’re buried beneath thousands of unimportant ones? If you said yes to any of these questions, it might be time to start doing something about that paper clutter.
Paper clutter is something we all go through at some point in our lives, but if we’re constantly dealing with it, then it’s definitely time to go through these four tips to get rid of it once and for all:
Sort all the papers out.
Dump all the paper into one pile and separate them into two categories: toss and keep. Papers you can toss would be old receipts, outdated pamphlets and brochures, movie tickets, and unnecessary documents (like seriously, you won’t be needing that old high school test paper any time soon). Papers you can keep would be important documents such as birth certificates, printed insurance and bank details, copies of diplomas and certifications, and current documents for work or school that you’re actually using.
Remember, don’t feel bad about tossing out papers that hold sentimental value – like movie tickets or little notes – because the memories will always stay with you even if the paper does not. However, if you really want to keep them, transforming them into art or framing them up nicely is something you could consider doing!
Organize all the papers you keep.
In order not to accumulate clutter, the trick is to organize your papers properly. That way, it’s easier to identify right away the papers that don’t belong. Purchase a cheap accordion folder with labels and separate your papers into categories such as personal files, work, and school. If you really want to get detailed, you can purchase several accordion folders for these three categories and separate them further into more specific categories.
Digitize everything.
If, at the end of all of this, you still find yourself owning way too much paper, you can always turn to technology. Need to keep copies of your receipts for liquidation but don’t want to have a pile of receipts lying around? Scan them, save the scans on your computer, and then toss them out! You can do this for absolutely anything – work files, school files, and even those movie tickets or little notes we were talking about earlier. This is a great way to still get to keep everything without them taking up space in your home. Thank god for technology, right?
Repurpose your paper.
If you really do feel bad about tossing any of the papers out and believe they can still be used for something else, find a way to repurpose and upcycle them! Use your unneeded documents as scratch papers; turn old receipts into paper mache art projects, or simply use them to wrap Tupperware leftovers or eco-friendly gifts. There are many creative ways for you to transform your paper clutter into something beautiful and useful. Simply scouring the internet for tutorials and instructions will inspire you to create your own paper masterpieces.