All year long, I get emails and questions about various types of paper clutter — however, this time of year, I am almost scared to check my email because of all the paper clutter questions I get 🙂
Questions about everything from photos, kids’ artwork, junk mail, and receipts; to tax documents, insurance papers, and other important documents that need to be saved for various amounts of time.
I have shared many of my own paper-organizing tips over the past 5+ years — but one of my personal favorite ways to clear paper clutter is to pile it all up into one large box, basket, or container and then sit and go through it while I’m watching a favorite Netflix show or chatting with Nora while she does a craft or works on her “writing” (she is a very serious writer these days!)
I shared a little bit about this method back in November — however, I mainly focused on how this “dump everything into one basket” works to clear clutter off my kitchen counters. I didn’t specifically mention that it’s also a fabulous way to clear paper clutter from your house… so that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
Interestingly enough, one of my blogging friends (and fellow professional organizer) Lisa, from Organize 365, uses the same exact method for clearing her paper clutter (and her client’s paper clutter).
And since Lisa is more on top of things than I am, she wrote an entire eBook about this method of paper organization… and she is generously giving that eBook away to ALL my blog readers completely FREE for the next week!!!!!
Yes, that’s right – it’s a giveaway for EVERYONE!
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If you’ve been struggling with any type of paper clutter, or if you’ve made a New Year’s goal to create some type of paper organizing system, or if you just love reading about simple and straightforward ways to better organize paper clutter, you will LOVE Lisa’s ebook!
In a nutshell, The Sunday Basket walks you through the step-by-step process of creating a very simple and portable place for all your papers to “live” until Sunday afternoon (or whatever day you choose each week) when you sit down and go through everything.
This way, you only need to deal with papers once a week and you don’t need to live with piles of paper on every flat surface in your home all week long. Instead, all your papers are in one, easy-to-access location and once you have the basket set up, it only requires minimal time and effort on your part to keep the papers organized.
Does it sound like this method could work for you??
Click here to claim your FREE copy of The Sunday Basket!
(This free ebook offer is valid from January 7, 2016 – January 13, 2016)
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Lisa also recently launched a brand new line of “paper clips” that you can use to help you as you weed through all your paper clutter.
These clips will attach to almost any box, bag, bin, or tote — making it that much faster and easier to sort through all your papers when it’s time to sort through your Sunday Basket! (Watch a video of Lisa demonstrating these clips here)
She also has a few other sets of handy clips that can be used to organize other areas of your home and life.
Dave uses the days of the week magnetic clips to keep various papers organized at school — and I’ve been using the little kiddos magnetic clips to hold artwork or other papers for each of my kids.
Lisa is offering 10% off all of her “Paper Clips” if you shop via this link.
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I’m so excited to be offering such a FABULOUS freebie here on the blog — especially since Lisa is so generously offering The Sunday Basket free for EVERYONE! Plus, it’s an eBook so it won’t be adding any additional paper clutter to your home 🙂
Obviously, just downloading this eBook isn’t going to magically remove all paper clutter from your home and life — but it is a really great first step in the process.
As with all behavioral changes, Lisa suggests that learning and implementing this new system often takes about 6 weeks before you finally start to feel like it’s really helping your productivity… so don’t get discouraged if you don’t feel the change overnight!
Gradual progress is key when it comes to paper organization and general maintenance… and once you have a working system in place (like The Sunday Basket system), the maintenance part will be faster and easier.
Also, if you’re interested, Lisa has a BUNCH of helpful video clips on her website that will walk you through the ins and outs of organizing various forms of paper clutter.
And finally, here’s the link to ALL of Lisa’s Sunday Basket posts, so you can get a feel for how she uses this system in her own busy life.
Cheers to getting your papers more organized this year!
Barbara says
Thank you so much for this. It is wonderful! Also thanks to Organize 365!
gail t says
I’d like the Sunday Basket book. thank you,
gail
Liane says
Hi Andrea,
I’m so glad you posted this. After we decided to go paperless for bills and banking I sort of dropped the ball on the remaining paper piles. I’m going to order the clips and tackle the single bulging file drawer left.
One thing I did already which I find to be so incredibly useful is I made a huge oil of every single user manual for every appliance small or large in the house, and I spent an entire morning with Google finding PDF copies of them. With the exception of major appliances that are attached to the house like furnace, stove etc that don’t go with if we sell and move, I tossed all of them. For the ones that are a part of the house, I downloaded myself a copy but put the originals in a large manilla envelope which I tucked into the skinny cabinet next to the exhaust fan flue over the stove. It is too small to store anything plus requires a chair to get to it and furthermore that is where the builder put them 30 years ago. So I took my cue from them.
I did not do this for my husband’s extensive greasy dogeared tool manuals, LOL. I told him to figure out how he wanted to organize them and gave him a portable file box and ten years later they are all still crammed in there helter skelter. One thing 31 years of marriage has taught me is people cannot be forced into organizing by their spouses. I never need to look in that box and if for some reason need to find out where to buy a replacement nozzle for a shop vac there is Google.
All those PDFs are organized in goodreader app on our iPads and iPhones and are on iCloud so they are universally accessible. Like I’m at Sears to get vac bags. The guy asks for model number. I whip out phone and voilá I have it.
But…. All that still left me with a huge pile of other junk. So I’m hoping to refine my organizing with you suggestions. I’m also going to get the kiddo clips since while she no longer lives here my daughter gets occasional mail and my granddaughter has various school or sports related papers that I have no e-copies of.
Now if only someone can tell me what do do with a spouse who uses an ottoman as a repository for all the junk mail he gets from various places which he opens, reads and then stuffs back into the envelope. Once it got so tall I filled a bankers box with it. Did you know that if you get on the NRA mailing list they send you something nearly every day? It drives me nuts!!!!!!
Thanks so much for all the great info from Lisa. It’s finally raining in California so no outdoors projects for now so it’s a perfect time to organize papers. As soon as I finish my Christmas decor sort purge and box. Actually, I got a huge light bulb moment of inspiration that I would love to share with you! I so miss my egroups list.
If anyone wants to know how I figured out how to organize 30 plus years accumulation of Christmas decor they can ask you, right? Here is a hint: organize by where not by what. I can’t do your two boxes since I have 6 but they are no longer all marked Christmas. I have 3 trees, and one is in the motorhome. Each tree got its own dedicated boxes. That was the beginning. But there is more! I’d be happy to elaborate if you ask.
– L.
Betty S. says
I have tried to get the free Sunday Basket but have been able to get it. What am I doing wrong. Hope you can help. I went to the referred site also and it would not work.
Thanks, Betty
Andrea says
Sorry Betty. NOt sure what the issue is, but I’ll email it to you right now 🙂 Let me know if you don’t see that email come through.