The Paper Situation

Deep in the “fun” of tax season, and despite being in the digital age, the flow of paper coming into our homes is at a high-point. If not tended to immediately, it can get out of control and add to the visual clutter that is already stressing us out in our homes. There are several ways to approach managing paper and it can be very personal depending on your lifestyle and needs. Today, I’ll cover some tips that might be helpful in putting paper in it’s place so you can be the boss of your paper instead of feeling like it’s controlling you.

Please note that I am not a financial professional. While below I offer some standard suggestions and guidelines, always do what works best for you under the guidance of someone who has a bunch of letters after their name :)

Tend to it Immediately

When you remove mail from your mailbox, immediately recycle anything that does not need (or deserve) your attention. If you are able, don’t even let that mail into your house! I mean it! Next, open all envelopes, putting any items that need immediate attention aside and separate from the ones that can wait.

Now for that immediate pile - get to it! Pay the bills, sign the permission slip, and order the coat. Once these are completed, recycle/shred what you can (including all those prepaid envelopes you never use) and move on to the next step.

Where Does It Go

The items that don’t need immediate attention are usually a bottleneck here. Where do they go so they don’t get lost? How do you make sure you remember to come back to them later? What do you do with them when you are done? There are many solutions that can work, so taking the time to find the one that works best for you is worth the effort. You can work with someone like me to set a system up or you can figure it out on your own with a little trial & error. An example would be some lateral files on your desk labeled “to pay”, “to file” and “current”. Being consistent with checking in with these items will keep you on task. Designate an admin day for home tasks so you can be most efficient with that precious time of yours.

For the items you do want or need to save long-term, you have a variety of options depending on space available at your home, accessibility, and simply, what works best for you. Someone with ADHD for example will likely be most successful with a very simple system with few steps. Something like a filing cabinet where you can drop the statement into the broadly labeled and color-coded folder (ex. “Bills”) and move on with your day. Someone who has a multitude of papers they need to access quickly and frequently might find more specific filing necessary. A binder system will work great for someone that doesn’t have space for a filing cabinet. Think about what matters most to you in your paper situation and start there. For me, ease is important so I’m working on reinventing my own family filing system with less hole-punching and broader categories.

What to keep vs. what to save

The age of printing out and filing emails is long gone. Some of you probably don’t even remember that time, but yes, it really was a thing. Nowadays, most information you receive in the mail can be found again online if you need it. For example, Explanation of Benefits from your insurance company. If you’ve ever had a baby or any kind of medical procedure, you know how quickly the paper from these alone can build up. With the ability to log into your insurance provider’s website, you can recycle these knowing where to look there if you ever do need them. This goes with most utility, credit card, medical and household bills as well. If you are unsure, log into your account and see what you are able to access before you decide what you can safely shred or recycle. I personally keep the last bill on hand just so I can easily reference an account number if needed.

Receipts for large purchases are worth holding onto for warranty reasons. Simply putting them into an envelope labeled with the year should be sufficient. When it comes to business expenses, you need to keep them all.

Holding onto tax documents for 7 years is the standard protocol in order to be prepared for a possible audit. Depending on your circumstances, you might be more comfortable keeping up to 10 years just to have a buffer.

Important documents such as birth & death certificates, titles, wills, military records, powers of attorney, and social security cards should be kept indefinitely and in a safe place. A fireproof safe is great for this!

Kids’ School Papers

Recycle it all. Just kidding. Well, sort of. Having kids of my own, I know how cute it all is and how proud they are of their creations. The thing is, they come home with A LOT of paper, especially in the elementary years. I always take the time to look at their work and ask them about it, and after that, this is my thought process:

1. Is it really important to them now? If yes - put it on the fridge! Be proud of them & their great work.

2. Is the work unique to them or is it a coloring page or worksheet for example? The more unique, the more apt I am to save it.

3. Does it have their handprint or footprint on it? I like to keep those because those handprints can’ never be made tiny again. These (to me) are keepers.

4. Do I have space to store it? Would you rather store your kids’ 1st grade math worksheets or their next-size up winter clothes? Decisions might be easier to make when you are tight on space.

5. Will they care about it when they are 27 years old? Really - will your child even want banker boxes full of their old schoolwork? Does their A- worksheet on Abraham Lincoln represent something that you think could be a turning point in their future? Something CNN will share after your child gets sworn in as the President of the United States? Well, then certainly keep that one.

Boundaries are important here. Give yourself a specific physical space to store these items in to keep yourself honest. I have a file box for each child with folders for each year. When that box is full (or even better, every year), I’ll go through the box with my child and pare it down. As they get older, it gets much easier. I promise.

Prevent Identity Theft

It’s crucial we are careful of properly disposing of documents with sensitive information on them. Invest in a shredder for your home, save them for the summer bonfire, or bring them to a local office store (UPS Store, Staples, etc) or shredding event. It’s key that you make this part as easy as possible. If you don’t like shredding (like me), having a regular drop-off for your shredding scheduled with your donation drop off might be a good idea to avoid pile-up.

Stop it before it starts

Just like you do with email, you can “unsubscribe” from physical mail. Register with OptOutPrescreen to take yourself off the list for those credit card and insurance offers we get every day. DMAChoice is where you can, for a nominal fee, manage some of the marketing materials that are being mailed to you.

Request e-statements from companies you receive mail from and not only save the clutter, but a tree as well!

Finally, be super-duper sure that you want to be on a mailing list before you sign up. It’s easier to stop it before it starts!

Be Consistent & Adjust

Make your paper routine a habit. Be consistent with your boundaries of what stays and what goes, and ask your family members to be on board. As life goes on, check in with yourself and how your routines around paper are going. You may need to make adjustments here and there because things change! Just because I bought those binders and made all those tabs 10 years ago doesn’t mean I have to continue to use them now. You hear that? Now who is boss of their paper?? 😉

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