The Paper Solution: What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Life
320
The Paper Solution: What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Life
320eBook
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Overview
Americans are drowning in paper. We keep stacks of it on the kitchen counter, stash it in drawers, and store file cabinets full of documents that we never even look at. Studies show that fully 85 percent of the paper in our lives can be tossed--but which 85 percent? And how do we organize and manage the 15 percent that remains?
With The Paper Solution, founder of Organize365 Lisa Woodruff delivers a proven, step-by-step guide for what to shred, what to save, and how to sort what's left behind. With her method, you'll learn:
• What documents you must absolutely hold on to
• Which papers you can dispose of today
• How to ditch your bulky filing cabinets and make your vital documents accessible and portable
And at the heart of it all is the Sunday Basket: a box that sits on your counter and corrals those stray bills, forms, coupons, and scraps into an easy-to-use paper-management system. The Sunday Basket will become your new weekly habit--one that leads to less paper, less stress, and more time to spend on the things (and people) that matter most.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780593187777 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 08/04/2020 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Group |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Sales rank: | 979,808 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
The Paper Tsunami
Why Paper Is So Important-and How to Keep Much, Much Less of It
A paper tsunami is coming, and we need to be ready. Some of us have already experienced it, and many more will soon face the deluge. Our houses are full of paper, our parents' houses are full of paper, and some of us have grandparents' houses full of paper, too. That's generations of clutter waiting to crash down on our unsuspecting heads!
But there's a better way. You can ditch the filing cabinets stuffed full of documents (that you may or may not ever need to look at again). You can find the papers you do need easily, effortlessly, and without stress or drama. You can create a system for organizing your paper that actually works for you, not against you.
I know, because I was once where you are sitting right now-staring down a paper tsunami, filled with dread and uncertainty-and I've come out the other side.
Why I Care So Much About Paper
My name is Lisa Woodruff. Yes, I am one of those crazy-productive, ultra-organized people you love to hate. Yep, I was born that way. My closets were always neatly organized, and I live for a finished to-do list. (Sorry.) But even I found myself completely flummoxed and overwhelmed when it came to dealing with one particular type of clutter: paper.
My own personal paper tsunami came at one of the most chaotic times in my life. In the spring of 2009, my father, after being ill for nine months, was sent home with hospice care. He died just a few short days later.
As I made the final four-hour drive home, I kept my mind busy making lists upon lists. My sister and I would need to make funeral arrangements. The house needed to be cleaned, its contents dispersed and sold-sooner rather than later was best, since neither of us had the means to hold on to it. The to-dos involved with settling an estate were overwhelming. A quick Google search helped with all but one major question: what to do with all the paper.
My father's house contained a lifetime of paper, and each file would need to be sorted to settle the estate. Paper is tedious. The precious few days I had at my father's house were not enough to figure out what to do with each piece of paper. So I swept it all up and brought it home. Boxes and boxes of paper.
With my sister finishing the physical distribution and sale of the family home, I set to work settling the estate paperwork. I never felt as overwhelmed as when I went through my father's files. Part of me felt like I was invading his privacy, worried I would find something he didn't want me to see. Likewise, it was hard for me to simply trash some of the paperwork that was precious to him but meaningless to me, like his car catalog collections.
Oh, those car catalogs! Beautiful cars were Dad's passion, and he kept meticulous files full of bulky paperwork all about them. Cars he'd owned decades ago. Cars he wanted to own one day. That collection was his pride and joy, even though it had no monetary value or purpose.
It was also the bane of my existence.
So what happened to the bulk of Dad's papers? They sat there, in my home. Taking up physical space, yes, but more important, taking up precious mental and emotional real estate. My home was filled with my father's files and boxes of memories that I didn't know how to process or enjoy. Every day was filled with anxiety. Something had to give.
On New Year's Day 2012 (that's almost three years after Dad's papers landed in my house, for those of you keeping score), I made a vow to finally get all that paper in order. That included dealing with my own paper as well as my father's. Because I found very few books or resources that specifically addressed how to organize paper, I soon realized I was on my own. I took a deep breath, dug in, and for the next three months-through trial and a lot of error-I dealt with the paper, sheet by sheet. (Even those out-of-date car catalogs, which I recycled in the end.) Eventually, my home became close to being manageable again.
I'd turned my paper problem into the Paper Solution.
I started blogging about my experience, with the goal of sharing advice with others facing the same sort of paper crisis. And people really responded! Some of them were, like me, cleaning out a family house or a loved one's estate. Others were simply overwhelmed by the school forms, monthly bills, medical forms, and other detritus of everyday life. My blog, Organize 365, spawned a newsletter that attracted tens of thousands of devoted fans, then a hit podcast, and, eventually, a thriving business.
Here's what I realized: although people interested in decluttering can find plenty of videos, books, and other resources about how to get rid of extra clothes, housewares, and "junk," no one was talking specifically about how to organize paper. And yet paper is one of the most common-and anxiety-producing-kinds of clutter that most of us have to deal with. Why is that?
What Is It About Paper?
Paper is the bane of most people's existence-even the most organized person will break out in a cold sweat at the thought of sorting a mountain of paperwork. So why is it so hard for even otherwise tidy people to get their heads around their paperwork?
For starters, it's the sheer volume of paper we're all faced with on a daily basis. When personal computers were first developed, we were promised they would lead to a society with less paper; but forty-plus years later, we are still not there. Although the "paperless office" was first proposed in a Businessweek article way back in 1975, today the average office worker is still estimated to come in contact with about ten thousand pieces of paper every year.
And we're not just overwhelmed with paper at work. Americans face a daily deluge of paper at home, too-it comes in the mail, kids bring it home from school, our activities send out newsletters and calendars-and we often get behind in its management. The average American household processes a paper stack as high as a two-story house every year!
And the paper keeps coming! The United States Postal Service delivers over 484 million (million!) pieces of mail each day. The majority of the 4 million tons of junk mail that Americans receive annually ends up in landfills. This does not even begin to include the heavy amount of paper that we actually want or need to keep.
Paper is not pretty. It is not fun. It is practical, but it can also be tedious and nerve-racking. Paper piles are easily hidden-at first. For a long time, I debated with myself about how long I should save different papers, where to file papers I wanted to be able to retrieve, and why I couldn't find a particular paper. It was a waste of time-and it was stressful. And that stress builds up over time-until those piles just can't be ignored.
Although we desperately long for the paperless future, we are not there. No matter how electronic our lives become, we will always be dealing with paper. This growing volume of paper doesn't feel like a resource or a blessing-it feels like a burden.
So what do we do about it?
It is time to take control of paper instead of being controlled by it. We have to make decisions about these papers, find places to store them, complete some of them, and retrieve them when we need them. If we do not control our paper, it controls us.
So I Should Buy a Filing Cabinet, Right?
No! Dealing with your paper tsunami does not mean buying a filing cabinet. The average filing cabinet holds eighteen thousand sheets of paper, and "filing" your papers is often a way to avoid dealing with them head-on. Before you can buy an organizational product, you need to first create an effective paper management system.
Even though some of this paper is actually useful, it's no good to any of us if we can't separate the "good" paper from the "bad" paper. It's estimated that the average American will lose an average of 2.5 days per year looking for things. I've found that even a well-organized filing cabinet (filled with perfectly filed papers you don't need) leads to more lost papers-and more stress-than it's worth.
Even worse, many Americans spend an average of $90 each month on a storage unit outside the home. Listen: storage units are great for short-term storage or specific life events, but if we are paying to store stuff (including paper) month after month, only to never look at it again, we are wasting our money, time, and energy. When I have assisted clients in organizing their paper, generally 85 percent could be recycled or shredded. However, it takes time and energy to sort the active and reference papers from the piles that accumulate all over the house. How do you know which 85 percent to get rid of and which 15 percent to keep?
As a professional paper organizer, I find that the number one daily organizational challenge for people is getting (and keeping) a handle on their paper. A glance at a typical kitchen counter reveals piles of coupons, bills, school notes, directories, calendars, photos, mail, catalogs, and more. Almost every person I have heard from in my business believes that if you file it, you will forget it. This is paralyzing.
But I'm here to tell you: it doesn't have to be like this.
Paper organization is a skill. And it can be taught.
Why I Still Love Paper
So after reading this book, you probably think that I'm an avowed anti-paper crusader, determined to browbeat you into discarding all your precious paper and bring you kicking and screaming into an all-digital world. But you'd be wrong! I actually adore paper.
What?! Why?
Paper is easy. It's tangible. It's portable. As a professional organizer, I can much more easily teach you how to organize physical paper versus virtual files. And the truth is, paper is not going anywhere. So we have to figure out how to deal with it effectively.
But before you can organize the paper you need, you must first understand why paper is taking over our lives. That's what I'll explore in Part I of this book: how we got here, and why your current paper solutions probably aren't working.
Then, you need to get rid of the 85 percent of your household paper you don't actually need. That's where Part II of this book comes in: how to do the Big Purge and get rid of a big chunk of the paper that's weighing you down. You'll also learn the tenets of the Sunday Basket method, which I've used to streamline the weekly paperwork needs of thousands of clients.
So once you can actually see the paper you need, how do you manage it more effectively? That's where Part III of this book comes into play. I'll teach you about the binder method I've developed after working with thousands of people: keeping the bulk of my necessary physical paper organized in a few key binders that allow me to direct my family, even when I am not home, to retrieve the paper in question in my absence.
And for those few but important papers that you have to hang on to for the long haul-birth certificates, Social Security cards, passports, insurance paperwork, and the like-I'll teach you an archival method in Part IV. I'll also show you how to maintain these systems (even when life gets messy) and when, yes, digitization can help in certain situations, too.
The Promise of The Paper Solution
This book will be your guide to getting your papers organized to be useful, productive, and profitable.
Imagine the life that awaits you. Being able to put your hands on a physical piece of paper will add speed to your transactions, add weight to your verbal arguments, improve your memory, and give you confidence in your home organization.
I know this sounds like a pipe dream to some of you right now. I promise it's not. You may not be "naturally organized," but you can learn to create a system to organize your papers, a system that's customized to you and that works for your family.
In the end, I spent a whole year getting my home and paper in order. I then spent the next six years building systems that work and learning how to teach others to apply these same systems and skills. And today (after that somewhat rocky start), I can admit it: I now love to sort paper! But that came only after I developed the system that's at the heart of The Paper Solution.
Through my own journey, I realized there's a real hunger for this information out there-for someone who provides real answers, not just a blanket statement to throw away all your books or trash all your photos.
As I share with you the tools you'll need to learn to get and keep your paper organized, I will also include some lessons about how where you are in life affects how you make decisions-and how you deal with paper. One of the most important things I have learned is that paper organizing needs to be personalized and adapted to your life stage and phase. The way we handle paper is greatly influenced by our generation. The paper organization we learned growing up, at work, and in our personal life greatly influences our comfort with making decisions about paper and how we store and retrieve it. This book will help you to understand your own stage of life and generational influences on paper management.
Life is full of unexpected events. There are celebrations like weddings, new babies, and new jobs. There are losses, illnesses, divorces, and deaths. Each life change we face comes with new incoming papers, and we need a method and a system that flexes with these events. The Paper Solution has been developed to do that as well.
Your own paper tsunami is coming (or maybe it's already here)-that's why you've picked up this book. My goal in these pages is to give you a system to help you get your paper organized so you can be prepared to help your friends and family do the same. Paper organization requires an investment to be successful, but it is an investment in yourself. When you make paper organization your new priority, you will start to see a reduction in all the other costs associated with disorganization and clutter.
Table of Contents
Part I We are drowning in paper
Chapter 1 The Paper Tsunami: Why Paper Is So important-and How to Keep Much, Much Less of It 3
Chapter 2 The Hidden Cost of Paper: Why It's So Hard to Let Go-and What It's Really Costing Us 13
Chapter 3 How Not to Organize Paper: What Marie Kondo (and Your Grandmother) Got Wrong 30
Part II How do i get started?
Chapter 4 The Paper Solution Program: A New Way to Think About the Paper in Your Life 45
Chapter 5 The Big Purge: What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Tell the Difference 59
Chapter 6 The Sunday Basket: Where to Put Your Most Important Paper 81
Chapter 7 Customize Your Sunday Basket: How to Modify the Sunday Basket for Your Life 112
Chapter 8 Create Your Calendar: How to Get from To-Do to Done 145
Part III Ditch the filing cabinet
Chapter 9 The Binder Solution: Why the Best Storage Is Portable 163
Chapter 10 Your Household Reference Binder: How to Organize the Papers for Your Physical Home 178
Chapter 11 Your Financial Organizing Binder: How to Organize Past, Present, and Future Monies 191
Chapter 12 Your Medical Organizing Binder: How to Organize Your Medical History and Diagnoses 201
Chapter 13 Your Household Operations Binder: How to Organize Your Family's Fun and Daily Living 212
Chapter 14 Your School Memory Binder: How to Organize Childhood and School Memories 222
Chapter 15 Your IEP Binder: How to Organize Your Child's School and Medical Records 230
Part IV How to archive the rest
Chapter 16 The (Right) Way to Archive Papers: Where to Store the Stuff You Just Can't Part With 241
Chapter 17 Maintaining Your Systems: How to Stay Organized Even When Life Happens 247
Chapter 18 Going Digital(ish): When to Scan and How to Integrate Digital Solutions to Paper Organization 257
Conclusion 273
Acknowledgments 275
Appendix 279
Notes 293
Index 297
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