The Great Paper Purge: From Piles to *almost* Paperless

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Do you have piles of paper sitting on your desk? Are your file drawers overflowing? Is your purse crammed with receipts? Do you have any idea what to do with all those manuals that come with the appliances and gadgets in your home?

What about the things that aren’t technically considered paperwork? Gift cards, photos, recipes, greeting cards, kid’s artwork, magazines, coupons, you name it…they can all become so unmanageable that it’s nearly impossible to find what you need when you need it.

How about important paperwork like a written budget, life insurance, a will, college fund(s) and other investments? Does your current system enable you to get those set up and then track them?

Can you relate to any of the above? If so, then…

This is the year to rid your home of paper clutter forever!

As a recovering pack-rat, I’m slowly progressing from an office exploding with business and personal records, financial documents, receipts, photos, memorabilia, etc. to one desk with two file drawers and a laptop that’s backed up every night. There’s still more work to be done to be able to find anything I need within a couple of minutes and I still have a few small piles to deal with. But I’ve come a looong way and finally see the end in sight.

Unfortunately, I learned to deal with exploding paperwork though trial and error. It’s taken way too long to get organized and rid myself of the mounds of paperwork all over my office. In fact, there were multiple times I just wanted to hire someone to come to my house, go through everything and take care of the piles.

The problem was, even if I could find someone to take on the challenge, they wouldn’t know what to do with it. They wouldn’t know what was important, what was imperative to keep for business or what I just wanted to hang on to due to sentimental value.

I had to do it myself.

It’s been challenging…but now I’m glad I’ve done it on my own.

Of course I would have preferred to have some help along the way to guide me though the process. If someone could have told me exactly what to do, when to do it, and in what order to make the most progress, I would have sorted and organized my piles faster and easier.

I didn’t have that luxury. But, thankfully, you can!

The Great Paper Purge is designed to do just that. It’s a series designed to walk you step-by-step through the process of organizing your paperwork and eliminating much of it.

It will take work. But it shouldn’t be too unbearable. Each task is designed to be small enough that it’s attainable, but large enough for you to see progress and want to continue

Please note that the suggestions offered in this series are not the only way. In fact, they may not even the “correct” way.

My hope, however, is that The Great Paper Purge will guide you in organizing your paperwork, creating a system to keep it organized, and enabling you to find almost anything in just a few minutes.

So…do you have any paper that needs to be purged? Join us as we make our way from piles to *almost* paperless!

Sign up for free email updates and join me on Facebook to make sure you don’t miss a single post in this series!

OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES

How to Set Up Your Filing System

1. Choosing a Paper Filing System That Works for You
2. Setting up an In-Basket…and Using It!
3. Setting up Monthly File Folders
4. Using Monthly File Folders and Receipt Organization
5. Organizing Tax Documents
6. Finish Setting Up Your Filing System

How to Organize Your Paperwork

1. Organizing Paperwork Efficiently
2. Organizing Receipts when Backlogged
3. Organizing Receipts Daily

How to Keep Your Filing System Organized

1. coming soon…

*linked to The Better Mom, Your Green Resource (because going paperless is definitely green!), Mommy Solutions, and Anti Procrastination Tuesdays.

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iDreamOfClean

I’m a wife. I’m a mom. And I don’t like to clean! With a house full of boys, though, cleaning is inevitable. That's why I've made it my mission to find the best organizing and cleaning tips. Hopefully, those tips will help us spend less time cleaning and more time with the ones we love.

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