Five Days and Five Time- and Sanity-Saving Ideas: Day 4, Control Paperwork Clutter

Paperwork clutter getting you down?

Day 4: Deal with Mail, Forms, and Important Paperwork

Create an IN/OUT PAPERWORK SYSTEM

We are all inundated on a daily basis with mail, bills, important documents, and kids' school forms, assignments, and completed work. I have a simple, inexpensive suggestion to control this paperwork clutter. Purchase a red and a green colored folder and adopt an In/Out system. The red folder is for urgent actions (kids' permission slips to sign, bills that must be paid that week, and so on) and the green folder is for non-urgent items to review or file. 

It goes like this: No more stacking. I repeat, no more stacking. Each day, process all mail immediately (or as soon as humanly possible). All junk mail goes into the recycling bin and then separate "real" mail into the two colored folders: action or review/file. Each school day, when unpacking younger kids' backpacks, put their important forms, permission slips, and assignments into the red folder (assuming they do not need to be signed that day) and put non-urgent documents to review in the green folder, including art work. Tell your older kids about this system and ask them to process their documents daily into the two folders as well. Then, choose a regular, recurring day each week (or bi-weekly, if needed) to process what is in each of the folders. The goal is to start each week with the folders as empty as possible (if you need to cheat on time a bit that week, just process the red folder, but try not to make this a habit as the green folder will quickly become overwhelming). Keep the folders in a highly visible and accessible place in your house with the red one on top as a visual reminder. 

You can do it and good luck!

*Remember, if you ever want help with planning or implementing individual or family organizational goals and strategies, Enriched Family is here to support you. I offer a free, 20-minute initial phone consultation to all new clients to discuss matching your needs and priorities with my services. In addition, I am offering a 15% discount to all new clients through March 2018. Click the "Let's Get Started!" button at the upper-right corner of this page to contact me. 

Here's to getting more organized in 2018! 

Esha/Enriched Family

(The post above is provided for informational purposes only; the information is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge, but there may be omissions, errors or mistakes, and no guarantees are made.)