Paper is taking over my house! Everywhere I look there is a stack of paper and more comes through the door every day. Even though I’ve gotten myself off as many junk mail lists as possible the mailbox still fills up. It’s all junk, I get all my household bills electronically so there is nothing in there but trash. Every day I walk it from the mailbox to the recycling bin because if it makes it in the house it will sit on the counter until I have time to go through it.
I know everyone is sad about the problems the post office is experiencing but seriously, if they got rid of the junk mail and just delivered the important stuff it would cut down on a lot of unnecessary weight in the mail trucks.
Then there is the paper from my job and my daughters job, insurance paperwork and forms, pay stubs, company manuals, it never ends. This is one area that I really struggle with, I have a basket to put it all in, but then it sits there until the basket is so full that I have to deal with it. To make matters worse, my daughter and I both write so there are scraps of paper everywhere with ideas we’ve just had to write down before we forgot them. Where do I file those?
I need to learn to handle each piece of paper just once, decide where it needs to be and file it or toss it, instead of letting it pile up. I have a really good filing system set up, I’m organized like that, I can put my hands on anything I need in less than five minutes. Of course that only applies if I’ve filed it in the first place.
I am determined to get rid of this paper clutter, I can’t stand it, there’s nothing useful about it. I usually do pretty well, but it seems like once everything is organized it will start to slowly pile again. Even my craft room has a paper mess, there are so many patterns, instructions and quilt templates. I’m going to put a file cabinet in there as well and organize them all.
The only place that is not a paper mess is my desk, I’m very organized there. The file cabinet sits next to it so if paper makes it to the desk it gets files and forgotten about, until I need it. I love that, I love being organized, knowing right where a piece of paper is when I need it. I just need to make it a habit, put it away as soon as it comes in the house, otherwise it will sit in the basket and multiply.