2021 Home Organizing Challenge. Week 1: Paper Management.
/Welcome to our 1st ever 2021 Home Organizing Challenge. We hope to turn this into a yearly event.
What better time to start than January? This is the time many people resolve to get more organized. My job is to help, motivate, and hopefully inspire you to stay organized, long after the challenge is done.
Let’s start by doing a brain dump. Free your mind, write down anything and everything that you need to do. Sometimes just getting everything out makes me feel less stressed, even if i don’t actually do the items on the list! You can also just use any notebook, same concept.
First week we’ll start small. Paper Management. Now, I’m not asking you to go deep in your archives and pull out files from 5 years ago. We don’t want to overwhelm ourselves. Start now, where you are and move forward. Once you create a system for current paper, you can always go back when you feel ready to tackle it on.
Ready to Simplify? Let’s begin:
I’m going to ask you to go around your home and collect all the paper you see. Don’t include paper that is already in some sort of filing system, or archives. Go get all the junk mail, bills, magazines, forms, receipts, papers that need a home.
Separate into piles: To Recycle, To File, To-Do Eventually, To Do Now. Any forms or bills that are due within the week should go into the To Do Now pile. Make sure you get to them by the end of the week, if you can’t tackle it immediately. The key to not letting that “To Do Eventually” pile is to go through it weekly. Priorities often change, you may change your mind and move it to the Recycle Pile or it may end up being moved to To Do Now.
Set up a command centre for incoming papers so they have a home while they’re all in one place and waiting to be sorted.
Remember, maintenance is the key to staying organized. Make it a habit to tackle all incoming papers as soon as they enter the home. If you add this to your weekly routine, you’ll soon have your paper under control.
