Simple Tips for Decluttering Paper In Your Home

Now that just about everything is digital, we don’t need to keep a lot of paper. Time to clean it out and get rid of it!

It’s tax time again. Every year we go through the same ritual of collecting all the documents we need to submit to our accountant.

I’m a fairly organized person, but it still takes some time to locate everything. Was that form sent as an attachment in an email? Or did we get a hard copy in the mail? If it was a hard copy, what did I do with it? As I go searching through the various places where a piece of paper could land, it always reminds me that we need to declutter the paper stuff in our home. I’ve been on a mission to get it done lately, and here’s some of what I’ve learned.

The first step to getting rid of your paper clutter is this: Set up a system to keep it from coming back!

Even though we stopped printing things, unsubscribed from all the newspapers and magazines we used to get in the mail, and do all our banking digitally, it seems we can still accumulate paper if we’re not careful. We need to predetermine what we need to keep and where it will go if we keep it.

A good piece of advice I learned long ago is making the rounds on social media again. One post I saw recently used the acronym O.H.I.O. – “Only Handle It Once.” That means whenever a new piece of paper enters your space, you deal with it then and there instead of just moving it somewhere. In most cases, you’ll either act on it, file it, or recycle it.

Of course, this requires a system for storing the papers you need to save.

I find the best place is usually in a file. It’s easy to access and organize, and keeps everything in one place. A simple file box that will hold standard hanging files like this or this will work. If you need more space than one will hold, you can buy another one and stack them. But you shouldn’t need very much space. Remember, we’re trying to get rid of all the paper! Make a separate file folder for everything – don’t try to group things all together where they’ll be hard to find. For example, I have folders for “2025 Taxes,” “2024 Taxes,” “2023 Taxes,” and so on instead of jamming everything into one “Taxes” folder. Label the folders clearly so you’ll be able to easily locate what you need (or purge what you no longer need).

For items that won’t fit in a file folder, a plastic bin with a clamping lid will keep them safe. Just make sure you store it somewhere cool and dry. These are nice because they’ll usually fit under a bed.

You’ll probably also need a place to keep papers that are “in process.”

These are things like receipts, bills, notes, or coupons you know you’ll be needing in the immediate future. I have a letter holder similar to this one on my desk for paper items I want to keep in front of me so I don’t forget about them. It doesn’t hold a lot, so I can’t let it get too full without periodically cleaning it out.

The only other place you would move a piece of paper to is what we used to call the “circular file.” In other words, the trash. Remember to recycle as much as you can. I bought a shredder a while back so I could shred anything I thought was private. I empty the shredder into a paper grocery bag and dump the whole thing into our recycle bin.

Okay, so how do we deal with all the paper that has accumulated up to now?

There are many different methods for tackling the job. Some experts say you should gather up all the paper stuff in your house and put it in one place to start going through it. This post about one woman’s experience with that method is very inspiring! I would think one of the benefits would be that you’d be able to see everything you were keeping and determine an efficient way to store it.

I don’t have a space where I could pile up everything and leave it there long enough to complete the process. So I’ve been tackling one box or specific area whenever I have some free time.

Start by throwing away all the obvious stuff. (You’ll know what that is when you get started.) Then make piles for what you need to save long term, what you need to act on, and what you can shred or recycle. If you have a harder time with sentimental things, you can make a pile for those separately and go through it after you’re done decluttering everything else. You might find it easier to decide about those things when you’re not so overwhelmed.

What do I absolutely need to keep?

Turns out, probably not as much as you think. In this video, Cassandra from Clutterbug says all of the papers you need to save long term should fit in one small box.

Here’s what to ask yourself as you’re sorting:

Do I even need a hard copy of this? Things like instruction manuals are almost always available online now.
Can I access this information somewhere else? Bills, bank statements, insurance policies, etc. can all be accessed through your online account. You may want to check to see how far back you can go with each account.
How long do I need to keep this? Do I still need it? A list like this will tell you what you need to keep and for how long. (Keep in mind that you don’t need a hard copy of things you can access online like statements, bills, and paycheck stubs.)
Does this apply to me any longer? If it’s from an account you no longer have, something you sold long ago, an organization you no longer belong to, etc. throw it out!
Have I outgrown this? I had reams of notes from when I first started writing that I’ve advanced way past. Same with sermon or Bible Study notes, collected bits of life wisdom, diet and exercise plans, etc. I don’t need to save the old information because I’m always learning and growing.
Has this phase in my life passed? I recently discarded a box of papers leftover from homeschooling my kids. I have happy memories of that phase of our life, but in the fifteen-plus years since it ended I never once looked through the box. Which brings up a good point…
When was the last time I looked at this? If you have a box you haven’t opened in years… do you need to?
For personal items, is this something that brings back happy memories? A memento that reminds you of anything unpleasant needs to go.
Is anyone else going to want to see this? Let’s face it, one day someone else will go through our possessions and decide what to keep and throw away. Would they keep this item, and if not, do I need to?
Can I find another way to save this? Can I scan it or take a picture of it? I’d probably look at my children’s artwork more often on my phone than if I kept it in a box.

A great piece of advice to remember is that everything you have talks to you!

In his book Goodbye, Things, author Fumio Sasaki talks about how clutter creates a “silent to-do list” that affects our mental health. When you look at the piles or boxes or folders full of papers in various places around your house, what are they saying to you? For me, a lot of it made me feel guilty that I wasn’t doing something I thought I should. Like, I should be re-writing those notebooks of information into a course I had an idea for. Or organizing piles of photographs into albums. Or at the very least, going through some of the boxes of mementos and enjoying them. Letting go of some of those things releases me from the pressure.

Here is the good news about decluttering papers in your home:

It’s relatively easy to get rid of paper clutter. You don’t have to try to sell it or take it to a thrift shop. You can just throw it in the recycle bin, shred it and recycle it, or organize it in a file.

If you’re having trouble getting motivated, or you struggle with getting rid of things, maybe it would be helpful to pile it all up in one place. If my bed was covered with stacks of files, papers, and old magazines, that would certainly be an incentive to declutter!

Have you been through the process of decluttering paper in your home? What tips can you give us? If you haven’t, what’s stopping you from tackling the job? We’d love to have a conversation about this topic in the comments below!

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