paper 101

Are you drowning in paper clutter? If you are like many of my clients, you are searching for new and better ways to curtail those piles of paper that just seem to appear on any available surface!

Just like anything you want to improve in your life, if you're ever going to keep up with all the paper in your life, you have to decide on a system, work it and then keep tweaking it.

Here is a 3-step process that has helped several of my clients. Feel free to “tweak” it as much as you need to make it fit for you and your family!

1. Examine the sources of all the paper. Write them all down.

• Magazines
• Mail
• Printing emails
• Notes from school
• _________
• _________
• _________

2. See where you can eliminate or reduce the flow of paper.

• If you get accounts by email and in the mail, email the company and stop the mail.
• If you and two friends read the same magazine, buy one every 3 months and pass it around.
• Sign notes from school immediately and send back the next day. Don't leave them on your kitchen counter a minute longer than you have to.

3. Decide on your comfort level for accounts/ filing

• I only keep 3 months' worth of bill/utility statements. Or better yet, get them electronically sent to your e-mail.
• Have one place in your home for "things to file". You can put things in this pile that eventually need to be filed away. Once a week, or once every couple of weeks, go through and file everything at once. It will probably only 10 minutes so.

Start implementing these tips for immediate results!