With spring just around the corner, something is stirring inside of me to get things cleaned out. Keep posted to see some upcoming spring cleaning challenges going on at Living 31:27.
Paper, paper everywhere. Paper, paper I’ll shove you under there.
Hmmm, that is sometimes my take on the mounds of paper that take over our house. Don’t judge me, that’s just kinda how it goes when you are someone who likes clean but is a little lazy. Or maybe I’m secretly a perfectionist who can’t deal with the paper unless it is handled perfectly well and to completion, which I don’t seem to have the time for.
That attitude is the red flag for me to simplify something. I need to simplify what paper I handle and how it is handled.
My current situation looks like this: Paper comes in. Paper collects a bit of dust. Paper is handled (for example if a bill, it is paid). Paper collects some more dust.
Ideally, in a good week that piece of paper is either discarded if it will never be needed again or it is scanned into Evernote then filed. Filed in our gigantic filing cabinets. Something that I would not want to be the one picking up to move.
Who needs 3 large drawers plus a cabinet?
Then I read Rachel Meeks’ blog yesterday over at Small Notebook.
Here’s what her filing cabinet looks like:
Copyright of SmallNotebook, not me.
I want that to be me. Even 2 milk crates would be okay with me. I could keep them next to my desk. Not in the basement that is kinda cold in the winter. Which then further hinders my desire to go filing!
The first step I have done today to get here is to take all of the papers (and miscellany) on my desk and make separate piles to be dealt with. The piles are:
- Take Action Tomorrow (aka, don’t let this collect any more dust)
- To Be Scanned
- To Be Filed
- To Give to Jesse/the Office
- To Give Away
- To Put Away (some things just land on my desk and I don’t know how they got there)
- To Trash
So, step 1 in your paper purge for spring cleaning: Get rid of the paper piles you have around the house.
Tomorrow, I will begin Step 2 and keep you updated. Mostly to keep me accountable.
Let me know if you want to join in on the paper purging and keep me updated. How do you manage the papers in your house? How much storage do you have?
Simplifying by Purging Paper, The Finale (Finally!) | Living 31:27
February 26, 2014 at 11:08 am[…] going through step 1 and step 2 that I previously told you about, I was able to minimize our chaos to this one simple […]