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Decluttering Papers – A Journey to Sparking Joy

DeclutteringPapers

Welcome back to another part in our decluttering series. Each week the ladies listed below and myself, read through The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and then try it out in our own homes.

A Journey to Sparking Joy:
Anderson & Grant
Making it in the Mountains
DIY Passion
Dwelling in Happiness
Zevy Joy
Cupcakes & Crinoline
Lost in the Found
The Happy Housie
We have organized clothing, acessories, books and this week we are moving on to paper. This has been the week that I am most excited about.  For some reason, paper is the one thing I have the hardest time getting rid of. We have two file cabinets on each side of our daybed/sofa and there is a corner desk next to it that provides a work space. I usually store our warranties, important papers, memories, etc… in the file cabinets. In addition, I let one huge pile of bills and notes/school papers then accumalate in the kitchen.

DeclutteringPapers

DeclutteringPapers

I stare at our file cabinets often with big hopes of one day organizing them/cleaning them, as they are packed full! It just never ends up happening because I do not make the time or maybe I just didn’t have the motivation to follow through.

DeclutteringPapers

Reading through this book with these ladies has been a fun way to hold me accountable, to take these cleaning endeavors seriously and I have tackled jobs that have been avoided for a long time.

DeclutteringPapers

Here is how I went about cleaning papers according to Kondo’s recommendations.

  • As before with all of the previous weeks, you are told to put every paper in one spot. In one place to see and sort.
  • She has categories for papers and you are to begin sifting through/decluttering according to these categories – “currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinately”
  • Some of the most helpful tips came to bills, warranties/manuals, cards and childrens papers. For bills, she said there is really no need to hold on to ANY. So I properly discarded. I held on to ones that needed to be payed and as soon as I do, they will also be tossed. Warranties were about the same as bills. She had a good point, that they are mostly never needed and when they are, they can be found online. With greeting cards, I was able to keep only the very special ones and put them in baby books or photo books. Lastly, I treated children’s school papers the same as I did greeting cards. The ones that brought a huge smile to my face and a memory went in a file but I was able to let go of the pages of letter practice.
  • When most of the focus is on keeping things that bring you joy, general papers (most of the time) do not fit this purpose.  Especially bills, to-dos, etc… So it made sense that this collection needed to be wittled down.
  • I also made it a point to take informational papers and write them down on my planner and then toss. This will continue to be my practice so that that evergrowing pile in the kitchen will finally have a solution.

DeclutteringPapers

This week felt like another sucess, where I learned some new ways to think about the things that I am holding onto and why I am keeping them. I am truly enjoying less clutter through the home and am feeling confident on how to keep it that way. Even though this process has been an adjustment to her recomendations, I have seen the benefits.  Stay tuned next week and make sure to check out the other’s progress below. Thanks so much for stopping by. I am so happy to have you here and appreciate your comments. Enjoy your week!


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4 Comments

  1. I’ve started writing all my information on the calendar right away as well so I can ditch the papers. I have even colour coded my calendar according to the type of event/activity:) I totally agreed with her tip about warranties and instruction manuals- with everything online we don’t need to hang onto that stuff. Sometimes this whole process is just about “re-thinking” the way we do things, right?

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