So I figured maybe she's not the only one overwhelmed by piles that have taken up residence in boxes...and now overflow the boxes! She came over yesterday morning with a mini-box of papers, and we went through it together so I could dream up some strategies for helping her gain control of the paper clutter!
There's no real right or wrong way to do it, but I'll tell you what I told her, and maybe it will help if you feel as overwhelmed as she does!
1. Gather everything in one space.
My friend that I helped yesterday told me her kitchen island tends to be the catch-all for mail, contents of backpacks, and all other such paper clutter. When it starts to topple, she puts it in a box. I think she said she was up to three boxes, and that's what made her reach out to contact me. So I told her to round up all the boxes and get ready for a sorting party.
2. Start making piles.
I advised her to pick a big open area: living room floor, garage, hallway, whatever worked, because she was going to start making big piles. I told her to start at the top and make a category for whatever paper came out of the box first. I also told her to have a stack of sticky notes and a pen on hand so she could label her piles. It's easy to remember what's what when you only have two or three, but once you have a dozen or two piles going, you won't remember what goes where without a label.
Everyone's categories will be different. Depending on what your life entails, you might have old (or new!) bills, report cards, fundraiser papers, legal documents, sports information, cards, pictures - the list goes on and on.
One of your piles should be trash, which will be a fulfilling thing to throw out immediately when your sorting pile is done. You'll also want a shred pile for things you don't need to keep - but you don't want to just pitch in the regular trash because they have identifying information on them. If you don't own a shredder, you can put those things in a box or bag until the next community shred day in your area. (Most cities and downs have opportunities now and then for you to drop off shredding at a certain location.)
Open mail as you go - it will be easier to sort things when you can spread the papers out and they're not all folded up inside an envelope.
ALSO! If you find things that are current and require action/payment, put them in an urgent pile and deal with them quickly. No one has time for late fees and penalties.
3. Then make sub-piles.
Once you've gone through everything, you'll probably notice you have some piles that are small and manageable, and others are starting to topple. The tall piles can probably be recategorized in another way to make a few smaller piles out of them.
For example: when I was helping my friend, I told her one of her sorting options might be to make a pile for each of her children. But then within that pile, she might find artwork from school, pictures, report cards, checkup printouts from the doctor, sports schedules, and more. So she can then make sub-piles for each one of them to sort out exactly what she has for them.
4. File what you can.
Some of your papers can be filed. Bills, check stubs, taxes, legal documents...those sorts of important papers can be separated by category and put into file folders. If you have a file cabinet, you can put them in there. If you don't, you can buy file boxes that are smaller and easily store the things you need to keep. If you label the folders, you can quickly find whatever you need at a later time, and as new papers come into your house, you can add them to the file folders so you don't make new, toppling piles on your kitchen island!
Ryan and I like to use hanging files, because they stay nice and perky in the drawer and don't slouch down so far that you can't see the tab that labels them.
5. Get rid of what you no longer need.
Just because you have bills, check stubs, taxes, legal documents, etc. doesn't mean you need to keep them. Check online to see how long you need to keep whatever you have in front of you. (Also take into consideration whether or not you may feel it important to keep something longer than the standard because of a unique life situation you have.) If you don't need it, don't keep it. If you're trying to go paperless, you may also want to look into scanning some or all of these documents and getting rid of paper versions if you don't need them.
6. Determine what needs to be within reach and what can be filed away in storage.
We try to keep recent important documents handy, but if something is from a few years back, we'll store it somewhere else so it doesn't take up valuable real estate in the office. We can still access it if we need it, but it's not in the way. That can certainly make day-to-day life more breathable.
7. Sort through the sentimental things.
That can be the hardest part, right?
You don't have to keep every single card ever sent to you - unless you want to! Here in our household, we tend to keep all the cards from big events (our wedding, Ryan's mom's passing, etc.) but we don't keep every single little card we receive. We have a card box where we stash the ones we want to keep for posterity. (By "card box," I mean a storage tote.)
Most of our pictures are digital now, but the ones that we do have in print also have a storage box where they go to live once they're not in a frame anymore. I don't keep duplicates or weird pictures (like an accidental shot of a sandbox taken back in 1983). I also advised my friend (who had packs of leftover school pictures in varying sizes from wallet to 8x10) to keep one or two but not to worry about keeping every single print from 10 years ago. (Picture organization can probably be its own separate post, actually!)
Ryan and I keep a "yearly box" every single year. We throw in our ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, funeral bulletins, state park maps, and other little memory-makers from our adventures. We go through the box on New Year's Day, reminisce about our year, keep the things that have come to mean the most to us, and throw away the rest. The things we keep go in a gallon sized bag, which I label with the year, and then the bag goes in a storage tub.
My friend has three children, and the youngest, in particular, is pretty insistent that all artwork be kept forever. I told her I once saw advice from a mom who keeps everything for the school year and then asks the children to go through their own work and pick their ten most favorite things to keep. She photographs the rest of the pieces, saves the pictures, tosses the artwork, and keeps the ten winners in tangible art.
8. Make homes for everything and make sure everything finds its home.
Once you go through everything initially and make the files, the boxes, and the tubs, make a rule that every week (no longer than every month) from here on out, you'll go through any piles and put everything in its home. Regular maintenance helps make sure you don't get out of control again.
9. Periodically weed out the homes.
Since you don't need to keep documents forever, and things that were once sentimental may someday not matter as much, go through your permanent paper homes regularly and get rid of the things you don't need anymore. That frees up room for new things coming in! (This could be an annual project - like around tax time, when you're gathering up papers.)
10. Send things out with the owners when they leave.
A few years ago, my mom cleaned out some of her closets, and she sent a bunch of pictures and scrapbooks to me (and to my sisters too). She had kept the memories for us, and it became up to us if we wanted to keep them in our adult lives. I encouraged my friend to do that with her kids too; when they get out on their own, send their things with them. Of course she can keep things to remember their childhood, but they can take the bulk of it and do with it what they want. (And don't get upset if they don't keep it!)
So I hope some of those ideas help with the paper clutter! If you can bite the bullet and organize it once, chances are good you can learn to keep up with it so it doesn't become so overwhelming again!
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