“Like any type of clutter, paperwork has a tendency to start small but could eventually take over your entire home.” Abby Sasscer
Isn’t this the truth? All you have to do is ignore your paper for a few days and suddenly there is this overwhelming pile stuck somewhere or even in several places and the idea of dealing with it makes you want to pile the kids in the car and leave. The problem is it’s still there when you get back and likely another pile awaits in the mailbox.
Abby takes us through her Four P’s in this section. Conquering the Great Paper Trail, namely; Purge, Prioritize, Process, and Put Away.
I find purging to be the most helpful. Not even letting the junk into the house, from the mailbox to the trash is my motto. Even in this internet age I still get tons of junk mail and catalogs that just clutter up the works here. So I toss it immediately, ripping my address or any personal info into shreds first. I have this nifty little shredder which was inexpensive and helps keep the personal info out of the trash.
In the practical tips portion of section four Abby provides all of the different categories of paper and gives some great advice on dealing with it all.
I love this section of the book because it lays out, so simply, how to tackle this area of life and makes it seem so do-able. I also think the pictures in this section are very inspiring.
My own points to ponder;
If you have piles, what prevents you from dealing with them? For me it’s just perfectionism. I can’t deal with it all at once because I have to….(fill in the blank) so I don’t deal with it at all, until I have this embarrassing pile in my kitchen.
Do you find paying bills online helps? I do but then the few bills we don’t pay online then get lost in the shuffle. I need to be better at paying attention to that.
What are your challenges with paper?
Next week we will talk time management and that section comes with a lot of charts and schedule sheets that are so helpful for a visual learner like myself. I hope you can join us then!
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