Office Refresh-Handling the Paperwork

I’m working hard my finishing my office refresh. I’m reminded while doing this project that the big projects kind of take care of themselves. It’s the more minor details that lead to the success of the project as they seem to require the most attention.
In this case, I am dealing with paper clutter. No matter how often you clean your office space, if you don’t deal with the paper, it will never feel “right”. For me, I need a place not just for files but also for temporary items-things that need to be handled but not right now. It could be an invitation, something that needs to be scanned or responded to. It’s also vitally important to get rid of old items and make sure that everything has its place.
I have never been good about paperwork-I tend to make piles and move them around. I’ve gotten much better as I don’t print documents out as much as I used to.

START

These photos are from my 2nd organizing/shredding session. My computer ate the pictures from my first session. They have gone into the cloud likely never to be seen again! Seriously, I clicked to move them to a file but clearly I chose the wrong file.
In any event, I went from a fully overstuffed file drawer to one that is about 25% full.
I started this process by going through my filing cabinet. I shredded anything that was several years old/not needed. I also consolidated some files; notably my end of life stuff-funeral & burial plan, insurance papers, and my will.

This is what the cabinet looked like AFTER the first shredding/clean out session.

This box is actually part of my 2nd shredding session. It came from my 3rd floor storage. This box was fun to go through as it not only has it been stored for 16 years but it also contains credit card statements and tax forms from the mid-1990’s to the mid-2000’s. It was fun to see what I was buying in 1994! Everything in this box is old and closed but I felt it prudent to shred and not just throw things away for privacy sake.

CONTINUING ON………

My shredder has gotten quite the workout! Like most home shredders, these are not built for heavy duty. non-stop work. The shredder required several breaks during these sessions and it would let me know when the break was needed by simply shutting itself off! The first shredding session produced about 7 bags of shredded material.

This 2nd session produced these four bags but I still have about 20 more files to go through.

MORE TO DO…..

One of my goals of this refresh (in addition to improving my work space) is to find places to put the paperwork that needs to be housed temporarily before permanent filing or discarding. I’ve never been great at dealing with paperwork. I tend to put it down and then move it around. I’m not going to lie to myself and try to be the kind of person who touches the paper one time. What I think might work for me is to have a holding place for the paper and then a due date to deal with it. Perhaps scheduling something in my planner or an alarm on my electronic calendar will help.

My “to be filed” or dealt with stuff often ends up like this. Honestly, this is just one of my “what do I do with this” piles??!!
A couple of goals I’m trying to achieve is to (1) develop a reasonable schedule to deal with paperwork and (2) reduce the visual clutter. There may be paperwork that I need or need to deal with but I don’t need to see it. Seeing the piles of paperwork that needs to be dealt with just stresses me out.
I recently saw these online and think they might be helpful with achieving goal #2.

FUTURE PLANS

Now that the file cabinet drawer has extra room and my printer sits on top of it, I’m thinking that I might move my printer paper to that drawer for ease if nothing else. I actually have several types of paper that I use to print (when I print) including regular printer paper, heavier than regular printer paper, cardstock and sticker paper. Moving it to the file cabinet gets it out of my closet storage and keeps it out of eyesight.

CONCLUSION

While it is a bit taxing to go through all of this paperwork, it is actually a necessary and helpful chore. It will no longer take as long to go through my paperwork, all of my important papers will be together and everything will have a place.

I would love to hear how you manage paper for yourself and if you have any tips for me. Share in the comments.