Simple, I keep only what I cannot store electronically.

Yes there are some cases where I really need to keep original documents, particuarly those with raised seals, tax papers, and titles. While I do like to keep other papers, too there are a few non-negotiable historical papers that must be kept in their original form either for legal or sanity purposes. These I keep filed in a four drawer filing cabinet stored in manilla folders inside of hanging folders. Remember those? They are still available at office supply stores so if you need a quick refresher on them, stop by your local Staples.

Next up on the agenda is papers I need for current taxes or other matters which will require some level of paper trail like my car log and pattern sketches. The former go in a folder in the car door or in my desk and the latter all live in one, yes ONE, sketch book. When that one gets filled up, I put it on the book case and might look at it again, but if it sits for more than 5 years, out it goes. How do I know if I’ve looked at it? I put a post-it on the inside cover and sign it out to myself every time I refer back to it. Just a quick date on the post-it tells me all I need to know about how important that book is to me.

Memories are the hard ones to choose from. I still send and receive cards, real hand written ones that I cherish. I keep them in a folder and from time to time I scan them into a digital file. I do keep them and every five years I go through them, I keep some and toss others since I might no longer speak to some of the senders or the matter is too sad to remember, I’d rather keep just the happy originals. If you have boxes of cards around, start small by organizing them by holiday and date, scan them, and use criteria that make you happy to decide what to keep. I like to go back to my digital files on those long cold Winter nights when I cannot sleep or on days when I am just feeling down and need to remember there’s someone somewhere who one day took the time to send me a nice card. I do the same with the paper card files too, but those are stored in my basement so if it’s really cold, I just look at the digital copies.

Let’s stick with the memories for a little longer. You probably have a few receipts, cocktail napkins or paper cups around from special outings, admit it, you know there are some lurking somewhere. They are taking up space, it’s time to say good bye to most of them. But before they go, give them a good send off – photograph them and make an album you can flip through when you want to remember those special days. I keep one phone album per year of these sorts of scraps. There are a few like my collection of Grey Goose Honey Deuce cups from the US Open that I keep for everyday use, but the rest, they get photographed and tossed into the proper recycling bin, This lets me keep less around the house and more in my memory bank of digital files without the clutter to dust.

Now onto that magazine pile that’s mocking you quietly from its perch on the shelf or under the coffee table, or perhaps multiple locations around your home. It’s time to figure out what if anything therein you really need. Granted, this could take a while so instead of taking it all on, let’s do one magazine at a time. Here’s my method:

1. Take the top magazine and sit down with it and your scanner right next to you.
2. Find a page you want to keep? Scan it. If it makes more sense to you to have separate files for each article, save the document when you finish scanning all the pages, be sure to scan for any “continued on” pages and after you’re done scanning it, check the scanned image for readability.
3. Continue reviewing, NOT READING, the magazine for other things you want to keep. If you want to keep something, repeat step 2 for each article you want to keep.
4. If there are articles you want to keep on paper, tear them out and staple them together, file them as you go.
5. If there is an article you want to send a friend, tear it out and get it out of your house – put it in an envelope, address it and send it off tomorrow when you go for your walk or to work.
6. Repeat steps 1 – 4 until you are tired, this is not an activity to do when you are tired.

Pro Tip for ripping out pages: Use an exacto knife to cut the pages at the spine of the magazine or book so you don’t wreck your manicure or get a paper cut from the edges.

See, wasn’t that better than staring at the pile whilst doom scrolling on your phone or watching something mindless on television?

Random papers are my mortal enemy. They seem to accumulate everywhere. The first step to remediate them is to make some of them stop. Return junk mail to sender and get on lists that remove you from mailings. This is your first line of defense, I’ll write up how I did that in another post. For today lets go through some of these random piles.

For the itemized credit card statements and similar statements you might still get on line, try to download them as pdfs from the sender instead of receiving printed copies. This saves you the step of having to scan them yourself. Be aware though, you need to save the files they send you. They won’t keep copies for you for ever, that’s your responsibility should you choose to avail yourself of the option to have pdf statements prepared by companies with whom you do business. I personally like to see the paper copies, review them, download a copy for my files or scan the paper copies and then off to the shredder with them unless I need them for my taxes or another purpose within three years.

Pro tip on the mail: Opening the mail right next to the shredder does encourage less paper hoarding.

Time to warm up the shredder and the scanner, grab that first pile of papers and lets get started:

1. Review the paper, is it important enough to keep?
2. If the paper is important enough to keep, put it in the “to be filed” pile
3. If the paper is not important enough to keep but you’d like a copy of it, either download it from the sender or scan the copy you have in your hand and dispose of it.
4. Repeat steps 1 – 3 until you have enough pages in the “to be filed” pile to justify a trip to the filing cabinet to put the papers away.

Pro tip on the papers: Review papers next to the scanner and the shredder. Scan what you need to keep some record of, shred what you can, store paper copies of those things you really need the paper copy of, don’t let the pile get too big, better to stop and file than keep going and pile.

As you go through your piles it will become easier to part with things you simply don’t need any longer. The hardest thing to do is to start this process. So, take the first step today for a clutter free tomorrow.

Happy Sorting!