Tackling paper clutter

This Friday means hot spot #2 in Simple Mom's project:simplify 5-week decluttering program. (Can I call it a program? I just didn't want to say "project" twice. Oops.)

This week's hot spot is paper clutter. This post will be a combo of bragging and equivocating.

Maybe this is silly, but I can't bring myself to show our household filing system to the Internet. Heaven forbid, but I feel like it's saying, "Hey freaky stalkers, come break in and look RIGHT HERE for the good stuff!" So this post will not be a grand tour of how we file our bills or keep our passports or tax returns or whatever.

BUT, I am proud to say that I think these things are pretty much under control anyway. We have a nice system of in-boxes that's up and out of the way in the kitchen, one per family member. Mail and random paper stuff gets put in trays as soon as possible. Once a month we meet to talk about money and do household filing, and every month or so I go through my own in-box and sort things out into my filing system. We recycle lots and rip stuff up because we don't have a shredder. So that kind of paper clutter is in good shape.

But look, what's that on the coffee table?



A drift of preschool artwork, and piles of magazines stuffed underneath? Let me just take care of that.




That's better. Our child is an amazing artist and creates at least 3 new drawings a day, so there's no way we can winnow down to 3 pieces that will represent this whole year of her life, as suggested. The kid artwork is filed away in the banker's box wedged under the coffee table. But I did make a big pile for her Grammie to have. I also left her most recent pieces (green for St. Patrick's day) on top so there would be no emergency situations like "WHERE'D IT GO MOMMMMM?"

I also recycled some of the magazines I'm in charge of, which isn't many. However the other paper clutter person in the household is pretty good about sorting these out every few months. They are tidily criss-crossed by magazine title. I have a terrible feeling that once they are older than a few months they get stashed in boxes in the basement. But basement cleaning is a later and larger project, and most of it is stuff that does not belong to me *cough* PACKRAT *cough*. That's it! How's your paper clutter situation?