How to Organize Paper in your Home and Office

Organizing Paper Clutter

Do you have piles of bills, mail, or your kid’s papers taking up valuable space on your countertop or tables? Well then, let me show you how to organize the paper in your home and office!

Before you start organizing the actual office space, you need to get all the paper items in your home under control. This year Rich and I are going to start working towards going paperless (which makes me very nervous since I’m technology-challenged)!! But, even if you’ve already gone paperless, you will still have documents and important papers that need to be kept in an orderly manner. After all, there’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to find a document when you need it. So, if you’re not quite ready to go paperless either, then this post is for you! Next year we’ll discuss both ways and the pros/cons of each. Until then, let’s start digging through all your paper clutter!!!

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Use the 6/P Strategy

We will use the 6/P strategy to organize the paper in your home and office, but we’ll need to tweak it in a few places (if you want more info on how to do the basic 6/P Strategy click here):

Let’s get started!

PREP

Collect the following items:

PURGE

Throw away all paper that you do not need. Shred any papers that have identifying information such as your address, birthday, social security number, or any type of account number on them.

Sort all papers you are going to keep in one of the following four categories:

1) To keep permanently or long-term

• Birth/death certificates
• Social security cards
• Marriage certificate
• Will/living will
• Vehicle titles
• House deeds/mortgage documents
• Life Insurance policies
• Home Inventory List (written & photos)
• Passports

2) To keep temporarily (one year)

• Medical bills
• Current prescriptions
• Pay stubs
• Insurance policy statements
• Tax-related paperwork

3) Currently using

• Bills that need to be paid
• Papers that need to be filed
• Papers you need to act on/sign
• Coupons

4) Sentimental value

• Children’s school/artwork
• Cards

POLISH

We get to skip this step since we’re just working with paper! That is unless you made a huge mess shredding tons of paper and it went all over your room instead of in a trash/recycle bag! If that’s the case, then get to sweeping!

PERSONALIZE

It’s time to think about how you want to personalize your filing system and storage for the paper you’re keeping! Use my handy printable to help you determine your priorities! To get access to my free printable library just sign-up for my weekly posts!

To keep mail under control consider this:

• Folders, stacking trays, baskets, or wall-mounted organizer

For paperwork that needs to be filed consider:

• Expandable file folders, Plastic boxes with hanging files, Decorative boxes with hanging files

To organize kid’s school papers and artwork consider:

• Plastic shelves, plastic bins

For important permanent documents consider:

• a safety deposit box, a fireproof box, a weather-tight container

PLACE

Time to put things where they belong! Here are pics of how I store and file different types of paper in my home.

To keep permanently:

We keep important papers in a fireproof box.

Paper I’m currently using:

To keep mail from piling up on the kitchen counter, it goes into this wall organizer and is unloaded one day a week!

On Friday I remove the mail from the organizer and then discard the junk mail. Next, I put bills in the “To Pay” tray and documents like bank statements in the “To File” tray. If it’s something I can’t take care of that day, I put it in the “To Act On” tray. I used to put coupons in the fourth tray, but would always forget to grab them before going to a store. So, now I put them in a gallon-size freezer bag, that I keep in my car, so I always have them when needed!! Now I use that box to store my journal and notebook that I use daily during Bible reading.

To keep temporarily:

Any papers that need to be filed go into this file cabinet.

Sentimental value:

Schoolwork and art pieces:

When the kids were in school, I used the plastic drawers below to put all of the schoolwork that they brought home. At the end of each year, I would go through and pick the items that I wanted to save and then put them in a folder in a storage tub. One folder for each year. one tub per kid.

Christmas card pictures:

When the kids were young, we would send and receive Christmas cards with pictures of the family inside. As the years went on, we started sending/receiving cards with family pictures printed on them. I can’t bear to throw those pictures away, so I decided to put them all in a scrapbook. It’s so fun to see how everyone changes from year to year! I cherish this album!

Other types of paper:

Greeting cards and stationery:

I used to throw all my cards into a storage bin but could never easily find what I needed. So, rather than buying a storage container, I made this file system and it’s so easy to grab what I need in a hurry!

Scrapbook paper:

I love to scrapbook and needed an inexpensive way to store and separate colored sheets of paper, so I purchased this organizer.

PUT BACK

How did you like my tips to organize paper in your home and office? Remember, paper clutter can sneak up on you if you don’t deal with it regularly. Make a rule to purge paper weekly and you will stay organized and free of paper clutter from now on!

Blessings, Donna and Rich