“Paper clutter indicates a need for improvement in time management.”
~Julie Morgenstern
Before we get started, make sure you’ve read Part 2 of my Paper Clutter series so you’ll be up to date.
This is the part where the paper clutter in your life ceases to be. How? Think about the business model of a hugely successful corporation like McDonald’s® . Whether or not you like their food, I don’t think any of us can argue the success of their franchise. They have developed a system that works for every single one of their restaurants.
The S.O.S. Organizing System ™ can work for anyone. You have to start thinking of your home as a business that needs to be run and managed. Streamlining is setting up routines that make your home work like a well-oiled machine. This will make dealing with mail and other incoming paper second nature to you.
Let’s talk about the routine of dealing with mail—probably the number 1 source of paper clutter in most homes. To streamline your mail routine, take the mail directly up to your kitchen or wherever you’ve set up your “mail center”. If you leave it on the first flat surface you see, not only are you likely to forget about it, it will inevitably attract other clutter.
When opening your mail, stand close to the garbage, the recycling bin, file cabinet and your mail center. I have a wood file cabinet that I keep in the kitchen and it blends right in with the cabinets. If you have to go to another room to do any of these things then the paper monster starts to rear its ugly head. Another alternative to having a file cabinet in your kitchen would be to dedicate one kitchen drawer to “paper that is to be filed” only. When the drawer gets full, it’s time to start filing.
Don’t get sidetracked while you’re going through the mail or try to do too many things at once such as making dinner and helping the kids with their homework. Sort those papers as soon as they come through the door. Not opening mail or putting it somewhere to be “dealt with later” can cost you money! Checks expire, and unpaid bills can leave you owing a hefty fee.
If you receive a new phone book in the mail, immediately recycle the old one. I can guarantee the phone company didn’t forget to include the number of your favorite take-out restaurant! Likewise, recycle flyers and catalogs immediately as most of that information can be found online.
If you have children, get them into the habit of bringing all their papers (school newsletters, homework, notes from the teacher etc.) to a pre-established part of the kitchen as soon as they come home from school so you can deal with them right away. A gentle reminder when my kids (ages 7 and 4) walk through the door has always worked like a charm. No more messy, bulging backpack.
The most important part of this step is to find the routine that works for you and stick with it!
Use you calendar. Schedule time each month to take care of your papers. For example, set a time once a month to go through one of your files and make sure you still need everything that’s in there. If you like to watch TV or a movie on a Friday night why not make good use of your time and schedule the first Friday of each month to hunker down with a good show and one file to go through? Write this on your calendar as if it were an appointment. Do this every month, and you’re painlessly streamlining your filing system.
Lead by example. When you go to put something in your keepsake bin and it’s starting to look full, take the container out of its storage spot and go through it. Always remember the “S.O.S. 10% rule” and teach this to your children, if you are a parent. Your kids will need to be reminded when it’s time to go through their bin. Before you know it, they will feel motivated to purge because they want the space to keep their latest items and they’ll be getting use to things being organized.
Please remember, you are not defined by what you do, but by who you are as a person. There will always be someone out there who is more organized than you. That’s not the point of the S.O.S. Organizing System™. You need to take pride in knowing that you are taking steps to better your self, your life and your family’s life. Learning is something we should be striving to do our whole lives. That’s the whole point of this blog. If we stop learning, we stop growing personally. And whatever you do, don’t be afraid to make mistakes along the way. Embrace failure and success will follow.
Once you have these steps in place, you’ll gain more time in your day, and you’ll get to the point where you can start thinking about how to best spend the free time that you’ve gained.
Let me leave you with this interesting fact: The average person spends 22 minutes per day searching for needed papers. That’s over 133 hours a year. Over a span of 80 years, it’s over one year of your time wasted!
If you enjoyed this post (I mean, come on, I did just save you a whole year’s worth of paper searching 
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Do you have any routines of your own when dealing with paper clutter?
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I try to do a clean sweep of my paper clutter in my office at least once a day (at the end of the day). I also open mail the second it hits the door just so I wont have to worry about it anymore. This is all really great advice that I need to apply more at home!
Hi Carla! Sounds like you’re already following my advice! It really is a great feeling to have clean and tidy surfaces in our homes instead of piles of papers everywhere.