Conquering the Paper Pileup
ByMy site was up and down all week so I apologize if you had any trouble.
Usually I go through my mail every day or every other day. When I don’t I get the dreaded paper pileup.
My favorite way to take care of it, is to turn on a movie or TV program I wanted to see. I sit in the living room floor with my paper pile next to me.
Next I sort:
- things to put on the calendar
- receipts to shred
- receipts for taxes or for big items
- trash
- articles/things to read
- magazines
- to file
- to do (RSVP, paper to fill out, person to write)
- coupons
- bills
- papers for projects
Now I am surrounded by various piles. Then during the commercials, I write things on the calendar and toss that paper. Next I shred the receipts. I put the other receipts in either the tax folder or my monthly receipt folders. Trash gets thrown out/recycled.
Articles and magazines I place in a basket. I file the to file pile on the spot.
To do’s I put on my to do list with the date next to it. Then I place the paper in a tickler file under the date I want to do it.
If I don’t already have a file for a project, I quick create one with a label maker and fill it with the project papers.
And finally my coupons are placed in a coupon folder.
Do you have any paper you need to quickly go through? You won’t believe how much paper you can go through during one TV show.
You can find similar articles below
- What To Do with All Those Papers
- Making Decisions on Paper
- Project Files
- Revamping File System
- Paper Management
Exactly what I needed…short and sweet…to deal with paper PILES….my ADD nemesis. thank you!
You are welcome. You can get through that paper pile Eeva!
[...] If you have lots of papers to go through, read my post: Conquering the Paper Pile Up. [...]
Thank you for this. I like to find and read (and often, re-read) posts like this one to help amp up my motivation to attack my paper piles on a regular basis. Just like my fitness magazine subscriptions help motivate me to DO my exercises regularly, your blog helps motivate me to do a little bit toward getting and staying uncluttered on a regular basis. Papers are one of my biggest challenges, so this is getting a bookmark in my browser, too! Thank you Beth!