Paper is my hell.
At one point, I was actually finding mail that was several years old. I still struggle with this and have to remind myself every day to deal with every piece of paper that comes in immediately and be done with it.
Something that worked for me far, far better than I had even imagined: a $20 shredder.
I bought a cross-cut that takes about 6 sheets at a time. Could have gone all out and spent a lot of money. Could have gotten a micro-shredder that took fewer sheets at a time but really almost disintegrated the paper. Since my purchase was more for motivation than security, I decided cross-cut was fine. It will also shred credit cards, but I don't have any and nobody sends me any, so that's not an issue.
When I bought the shredder, I bought 2 plastic, lidded w/handles file boxes that could hold hanging files, because that's what I had. Years ago I set up a hanging file system in the filing cabinet, a little metal 2-drawer thing. Then somehow I acquired a second one just like it and did the same for it. I decided I would empty them, and only keep enough to fit in the two plastic boxes. I mean, how much could there really be, in the end? It fit fine, with room to spare. And the old, squeaky, sticky, dented metal cabinets that took up a bunch of room were gone from my "junk" room.
How I got rid of the piles:
One shoebox, Wal-mart bag and container at a time (and I had this stuff stuffed in EVERYTHING imaginable). I pulled one thing out, determined if I needed it, if not, directly into the shredder.
That was FUN. I still like shredding stuff.
If I needed it, I picked a category very quickly. I had folders like:
- Car stuff (insurance, titles)
- personal stuff that can make you crazy looking for them when you must have them (birth certificates, SS cards, insurance policies)
- home stuff (taxes, insurance)
- personal keepsakey papers
- receipts and instructions for appliances I felt the need to keep (I had inches of these things and ended up keeping about 3 manuals)
- income tax stuff
- child school papers to keep
- I'm sure there were a couple more that I can't remember
The point is they were pretty general categories, and I had NO miscellaneous category (this way lies madness).
I clearly labeled them, but just in pencil (aka Julie Morgenstern) to allow for changes later, in case it seemed best to split a category up. On the car folder, I penciled a list as I threw things in. Titles, insurance, loan documents--just in general, that way if I ever couldn't immediately figure out where I might have filed something, I'd only have to look at the folder to see. (I eventually shredded the loan docs--that loan had been paid off years before!)
If it was a bill I needed to pay, I kept it out so that I could deal with it right away. Otherwise, it went into an appropriate folder, or I shredded it. My reasoning was, it's so easy to keep these boxes of mail and papers, but if I fill a bag with shredded paper, I'm going to take that bag out of here. And I did. It was awesome.
I ended up purchasing a primary-colored file box just for the kiddo's school papers I wanted to keep, like artwork and special papers--it's cram-packed and something I really need to sort through. She's 13, so there are less of these coming in, and I'm sure in my proud-motherly zeal I kept a bunch that I can let go of now.
My mother saved everything like that, but organized nothing, so guess how many of my newspaper clippings, musical awards and honor notices all the way through high school I now have as keepsakes? None. I'm trying to prevent that with her and keep just the right items to put into an album--otherwise WHY KEEP THEM? As was proven out by my childhood, there's no point, because they disappear.
When I was cleaning out some of her stuff and I'd run across a yellowed, torn crumbled newspaper clipping of something I achieved, I threw them away. I wish I hadn't sometimes, but I have the memories and the sorry state of these "keepsakes" just made me feel bad about things, so it was best to let them go.
Anyway, because small children especially bring in so many papers (and at first I tried to keep everything) I decided that one box was enough. I have nothing from those years, and I'm fine. So I figure one box of special school papers would be just as good as several large boxes for her to have to deal with someday.
(I also bought a big plastic tub for keepsakes that weren't papers, like special T-shirts, her broken karate boards, and other things she might want to keep. It's a large tub so she can add things over the years. I just needed one place for all these things. I also bought one for myself. It has very little in it, but now I don't have to wonder about where something special to me is. I put my bridal veil in there, a card a friend gave me in high school, etc.--okay, I'm off topic now!)
Shred what you don't absolutely need. File what you do need in broad categories, and keep out what you must deal with it. Once you're done with a box, bag or bowl (yes, bowl, I have a thing for papers) move to a new one. Or if you're feeling burned out, deal with the papers you kept out to change your activity for a moment, and then shred or file what you need to from those papers.
When you've had enough (I actually went through EVERYTHING in one day, but baby steps don't work for me) put the folders in the filing box or cabinet, or wherever you're storing them. Dump the shreds and take them out to your garbage or recycling or whatever you opt to do. Then when you start again, you're totally ready to go.
The trick is that everything you handle, you never handle it again (until you go to find it in the file, or you split the file into smaller ones). Once you've gone through everything and you have your files organized however best works for you, then make more permanent file labels, as fancy as you want. And don't worry, you can add a folder later, or change these. It's not carved in stone.
When mail comes in, if it's junk, shred it. If not, deal with. Or file it properly. At the very least, once or twice a week try to go through the accumulated mail and sort in this way.
I know there are myriad ways to deal with this, posted both here by people like Script and in tons of books. This is just the way that worked best for me, and was sort of an amalgam of others methods--one method never seems to click for me. I think I'm just stubborn.
The shredder, though, that feels like it was a huge part of my success here. I still love it. One of the best $20 I ever spent. I balked at the idea of spending money on something to shred paper, when I could junk ink out my info and throw it away whole. But then I reasoned that I'd probably LOST a $20 or two in the paper hell that surrounded me--I know of at least one check I lost for that amount and found 8 months later-2 months after the deadline where the bank would no longer cash it. So it seemed like less of a waste of money in that context.
And the child has gotten much bigger on throwing away her paper messes since she gets to shred them. She enjoyed helping me sort, because for a while I just tossed what needed shredding to her while I filed.
I still struggle with making myself deal with it regularly, but I won't ever have to deal with a whole ROOM full of it again.
One point--if you're still digging out whole rooms of miscellaneous stuff, I wouldn't go buy a shredder right now and have one more thing sitting around. It could easily get buried. Wait until you're at the point where you have your papers ready to go through (at least for the most part), and other stuff in other places, and have a place to set it to easily use it. Otherwise it could just be something to make you feel more overwhelmed.
And hey, I found my old SS avatar--
Now I don't feel nekkid.
