Clutter Control, Paper Clutter

Paper Clutter

If you were following along with me last month, for the Clutter Busting Challenge, you know I found my fair share of paper clutter. It seemed as though everywhere I looked I found paper. Paper in the form of receipts, old list, newspaper and mail. It was everywhere. It was so bad I started to think it must multiply overnight while we were all asleep.

After the Clutter Busting Challenge I decided I wanted to keep the paper clutter out or at least under control. So I had to come up with some sort of plan. My first thought was to get the newspaper clutter under control. I wanted to take on the easiest area first.

I currently only get the Tuesday and Sunday paper each week, just for the coupons and store ads. So now instead of letting the coupons and sales ads sit around I try to pull the items I want to keep out of the paper and then put the paper out in our recycling box. Then if I decided I need to look at the paper again, which rarely happens, I can just go out to the box and grab it. If I don’t need the paper again it goes out to the recycling bin on Sunday.

My ads and coupons go down to my coupon bin right away. Well at least by Monday most weeks. When I take my new ads to the coupon bin, I recycle the expired ads. So with the new one in one out system I have set up for the sales ads, I don’t end up having expired ads sitting around to gather dust. So far this new system seems to be working well.

I also try to keep junk mail clutter out of the house by never bring the junk mail in. As soon as I get the mail from the mailbox I go through it. Then I recycle any junk mail right away in the garage. If it never even gets into the house then I don’t have to worry about it building up somewhere.

My biggest foe in my battle against paper clutter seems to be the kids paper clutter. I found scraps of paper in the junk drawer, scraps of paper in with my sons toys and in other areas too. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has kids who love to create things, such as signs, cards, and drawings. But all that creativity makes, you guessed it, paper clutter. Little bits and pieces of paper and whole sheets with mistakes that never quite make it to the recycling bin.

So when it comes time to pick up, it’s just so easy for my kids to stuff the paper away and not in the right spot. The paper gets stuffed in with the toys, like the pile of paper I found pictured above. My strategy for this sort of paper clutter is to remind them if they are done with the paper to just put it into the recycling bin instead of stuffing it  away somewhere else. I have put recycling boxes on each floor of our house so they don’t have to go far to recycle the paper they are done with. I see that this change is already working, so if we can just keep it going I think things will be better.

I am hoping that these few changes will really help me to control the paper clutter in our home. Only time will tell.

What is your biggest paper clutter problem or area? Can you think of make a small change you can make to keep the paper clutter in your home under control?

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