Welcome to Day 9 of the 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess Challenge! Today we tackle paper clutter: sorting, decluttering, and reorganizing so your home feels calmer and more functional. If you’re new to the challenge, you may want to start at the beginning. Affiliate links used for convenience.
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I actually began this paper-clearing project months ago. I remember reading the section in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and thinking it would be the biggest part of my decluttering challenge. That was more than a year ago. (You can read about my progress here.)
What I didn’t expect was how much this step would slow me down. Over the past year I picked away at paperwork here and there, but I never got a real handle on it because I wasn’t following the method properly. I kept trying to sort papers while they were still inside the filing cabinet, which made the whole task feel overwhelming.
My long-term goal had been to get rid of an old brown filing cabinet my husband owned before we married. It had served us well—once stuffed to overflowing—but I’d pared it down so only one drawer held papers; the other held printer supplies and envelopes.
Later I finally bought my dream desk from Ballard Designs—white, roomy, and with bases that function as filing cabinets—so I’d have more workspace and less of that unattractive old cabinet. But I still couldn’t figure out how to sort and discard the paper I didn’t need.
Everything changed when I followed the advice in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and pulled every single paper out of its hiding place. Once everything was in one place, the job suddenly felt manageable.
Here are a few items you might want to have on hand:
- Inbox or open bin for incoming papers
- File folders
- Hanging file system
- Pen (keep one you love so you’ll want to write things down)
- Paper shredder for sensitive documents
Rule #1 to Eliminate Paper Clutter: Gather Every Paper in One Place
To do this right, collect all the papers from every room in your home—kitchen counters, bedrooms, bathrooms, the laundry area, kids’ rooms—everywhere. Stack them together so you can see the full scope of what you’re dealing with.
When I emptied my filing cabinets and gathered all the scattered stacks, the pile was much smaller than it had been at the start of my efforts a year ago. I’d originally faced multiple boxes full of paperwork—so progress mattered.
I sorted into four practical piles:
- Keep
- To do
- To shred
- Trash
Be decisive with what you keep. Most of my papers went into the trash or shred piles. I kept a planner nearby and whenever something went into the “to do” pile I wrote it down so it wouldn’t languish there forever.
I followed Marie Kondo’s general guidance on paperwork—keep very little, like deeds and a few critical financial documents. She even recommends discarding most owner’s manuals, with a few exceptions. I wasn’t as extreme, but I did dramatically reduce how much I stored. I used to keep every manual in plastic sleeves in 3-ring binders; now I keep only a few important manuals in a single magazine file.
If this is your first time tackling paper clutter, be prepared: it’s rarely finished in a single day. Schedule time on your calendar—maybe a long weekend—and work through it methodically. Organization is a process; give yourself permission to take the time it takes. As you purge, you’ll notice you want to declutter more, and your standards for what to keep will likely shift.
Examples of items I discarded included:
- Tax returns older than seven years
- Home maintenance records from a house we sold over five years ago
- Paid medical bills and receipts long since resolved
- Random, unneeded receipts
A quick note of caution: I’m not an accountant or attorney. These are the choices my family and I made. If a professional has advised you to keep certain documents for legal or tax reasons, follow that guidance.
After sorting, my active file categories looked like this:
- Keep Long Term: mortgage documents, loan or account closure letters, select health records, marriage and birth certificates, passports, social security cards
- Art: a small collection of artworks I prefer to safeguard in a drawer so they don’t get creased
- Medical: a small folder of essential medical records for each family member
- House: current home maintenance records and HOA information
- School: recent important school and work papers; everyday items go into our Home Organization Binder
Rule #2 to Eliminate Paper Clutter: Have Only One Drop Spot
An essential part of staying organized is deciding where new papers will land when they enter your home. Pick one single drop spot—and use only that place. For years I was guilty of letting paper live in multiple spots: the kitchen counter, the junk drawer, the command center, my desk, even the dresser. That scattered approach made papers easy to ignore.
Now I have one inbox on my desk. It’s an open bin so I can’t hide papers behind folders and forget them. Our command center now holds the home organization binder and the items we need regularly, rather than serving as a paper sorting station.
I also established a simple system for handling incoming paper: jot tasks in my planner and toss the paper, file things immediately, or place items in the “to do” folder and schedule time each week to process them. Having a routine makes it easy to stay on top of new papers.
I’m grateful to have one more area of our home decluttered and a plan in place for future mail and paperwork. Tomorrow’s challenge focuses on desk and office organization—I recently organized my workspace and can’t wait to share it!
The Messy Work: Either start sorting your papers now or put a date on your calendar to do it. You can do this—no need to take a year like I did!
In the mess with you, Laura
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