So you’ve tackled those paper piles and things are looking fairly organized. You’re feeling pretty darn good…
and then the mail comes…
and the kids lug those backpacks full of papers into your home…
and don’t forget that fresh pile of papers sitting on the front seat of your car. In this modern world life is an endless stream of paper, from birth certificate to death certificate, and all the junk mail in between.
Since paper is such a huge part of our daily lives we need to put systems in place to deal with it. Here are a few habits I’ve developed that help me keep my paper monster in check.
1. When you get the mail, go to your recycle or trash bin and sort through it immediately. Do not, I repeat, do NOT sit that stack of mail down anywhere in your home until this step is done. You’ll find most paper never makes its way into your home if you develop this one simple habit.
2. Record appointment cards and business cards in your calendar and contact list. Then give them the boot.
3. Create a home for repeat offenders. Have a place, this could be a file or a box of some sort, for each major account, each child, important receipts, instruction manuals, or any other type of paper that keeps showing up in your life. When new items come in, quickly put them where they belong.
4. Create your own cookbook by storing recipes in 3-ring binders. I used to have a love-hate relationship with cooking magazines. I love trying new recipes but saving all those cooking magazines for a handful of recipes was taking up a lot of space. Now I just rip out the pages and pop them into my handy-dandy 3-ring recipe binder. Sometimes it’s even sorted by category!
5. School papers like permission slips and other forms should be completed as soon as possible. If I can’t complete the form that same night I stick it in my planner to be completed promptly and returned back to school.
These are just a few habits I’ve built that keep my paper monster docile and tame. In the last part of this series I’ll share with you my most powerful weapon. This is something I learned during my bank managing days and it is an organizational powerhouse.