Goodbye, Paper Clutter: How to Organize Your Paperwork for Good

Spring is here, and with the warm weather brings spring cleaning. You have likely tackled the usual suspects: sweeping, scrubbing, washing and hauling away bags of donations. But it’s time to tackle the beast hiding in your office: a mountain of papers accumulated over the years. Paper is small, but it quickly adds up and makes a home look messy. There is nothing more infuriating than rifling through piles of paperwork searching for a document months ago. And with Seven Gables hosting their free Shredding Day event in April, this is the perfect time to tackle your paper piles. Defeat this overwhelming mess for good with these tips.

Tips for decluttering your paper piles

Paper roundup

First things first, gather up all the papers you have in your home. Grab all the receipts, paperwork, certificates and anything you have been stockpiling over the years and place it in one location. This will make it easier to sort through and see how much clutter you actually have. While the obvious location might be a desk drawer, look in uncommon places as well, like the closet, under the bed and even the car. Knowing how much you have can help you figure out how much storage space you will need.

Having a dedicated paper space

The goal of decluttering is to organize what you already have and to create a system to keep it organized in the future. This is why you need to have two dedicated paper spaces: one for incoming paper that needs to be sorted and one that stores the important documents.

Storage: This is where you will keep all important documents. Your storage system can be a dedicated filing cabinet in your home office or clear organizational boxes stacked up in a closet. Choose whatever is easiest for you that makes sense in your space.

Incoming paper space: This is where you will file unsorted and recent paperwork. This can include recent mail, bills that need to be paid, receipts or recent bank statements. Consider placing this organizational catch-all in a place where paperwork tends to accumulate, like your desk. This can be as elaborate as a wall storage unit or as simple as a cardboard box. Plan to go through these piles once a month, sorting what can be thrown away and what needs to be kept.

How long should I keep it for?

As you rifle through piles of old bank statements, tax forms and receipts from old purchases, you might be wondering how long you should keep everything. Suze Osman, a financial advisor, has a great guide for how long to keep certain documents. Items like bank statements and utility bills should be kept for a year, while income tax returns and medical bills should be kept for three years or longer.

Organization is Key

When it comes to organizing all of these files, the system you use is up to you. One way is to organize files by year. If you want to be even more precise, you can further divide by the month.

Or you could organize by the type of document. For example, you can have files or boxes separated for household, car, taxes and bank statements. Whatever way you pick, make sure to label each file or box for easy access.

Consider electronic files

Sick of drowning in paper? Another option is electronic files. While you will still want to keep physical paper of some files, transitioning over to electronic files might be a great option. Just scan a document and it can be saved on a local hard drive or in a cloud software. Uploading electronic files also makes it easier to search for documents in the future.

So, what do you do with the forms that you don’t need to keep, but can’t bring yourself to throw away? Snap a picture! Taking a picture means you can finally throw it away, but also gives you the peace of mind that you can still access the information if needed.

Save, store or shred?

As you go through your piles, start making piles: Papers to store away, papers to take a picture of then toss, papers to throw away and sensitive documents to shred.

Time to Shred

Once you have a pile of papers to shred, consider taking them to Seven Gables’s Shred Day. This free event is happening at multiple Seven Gable’s offices across SoCal.

Seven Gables’s Shred Day

Tustin

Saturday, April 13 | 9 AM – 12 PM

12651 Newport Ave., Tustin

No e-waste

Max 5 boxes per person

Coast Office

Saturday, April 13 | 8 AM – 11 AM

19671 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach

Paper and electronic recycling

Max 5 boxes per car

Huntington Harbour

Saturday, April 20 | 8 AM – 11 AM

16895 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach

Behind the Trader Joe’s at the Huntington Harbour Mall