The Never Ending Paper Trail

One of the things I seem to struggle the most with is paperwork.  It seems like it is never ending! There was a time in my marriage where I kept everything.  Year's worth of electric bills, my fear would always be that the company would say we missed a payment at some point. (Never-ever happened) I have finally concurred my fear of needing to prove I paid something, and have managed to finally manage our paper trail.

The sources of our paper work for us are school, work, sports and mail.  I have one specific corner in our kitchen that seems to be the catch-all for all of these papers.  It seems like whenever the corner gets completely emptied more papers come into the pile. 

I feel like I am never ahead in the paper fight, but I have developed a few different strategies to combat the clutter.  I have made each boy a specific spot to display their school work. It works really well and displays each child's newest accomplishment.  (Like photo below)



I have a peg board for all of the important notes from school and the larger art projects that won't fit into the gallon zip lock bag.  I also post all of our sporting schedules and sporting paperwork here. 

I try to sort our mail everyday, try being the key word there.  We do not get much mail and there are times where we do not get any mail at all. (Those days are my favorite!)  We receive all most all of our bills electronically now. It was originally a huge adjustment for me to no longer have a paper bill in my hand.  For a while I was writing due dates on the calendar so I wouldn't forget.  However paying the majority of our bills online has had some big benefits.  It has cut down drastically on the number of checks we right and how often we need to buy checks and stamps.  I don't have to worry about filing the bill after its paid and throwing away all of those inserts. Not to mention the benefit of  not having the company use paper to print our bill and then mail them.  I now hate having to pay a bill the "old fashioned" way.  

I have a smaller file box where I keep all of our important documents as well as any owners manuals, etc.  This is one of my downfalls because I hate filing! I usually stack the papers up on top of the file box until I have enough to file away.  I'm going to need to find a better system sometime. ;)

It took me a long time to figure out what paper need to be saved and what could be pitched. I now try to make the decisions as soon as the papers are in my hand.  Otherwise I tend to keep everything and nothing gets pitched.  Developing a system that works for you is essential in managing the influx of papers, and then sticking to it!  

Good Luck concurring your own paper trail!
-TMW.

(Thanks for the use of the photo Classroom DIY. http://www.classroomdiy.com/p/welcome.html )