Decluttering Around Here: Project 1 Update

After releasing baby books in the journal shop and being away for the weekend to celebrate two birthdays, it was pretty obvious that this week was going to be pretty taxing in terms of the higher-than-normal paper load and lower-than-usual available time to tackle it.

How about you?  Did you manage to cross off the first decluttering item that you chose to tackle at your house for our little challenge?

Luckily I started right away, so over the week I was able to take care of all the little paper details.  I started by gathering all of the papers in our house and putting them in a cardboard box.  Every day I worked on the stack just a little.  Some projects are good to just dive into.  Others have to be done a piece at a time so you don’t get burned out.  I’m glad I stretched the project through the week.  It made all of those “I might need this some day” papers sooo much easier to drop into the recycling bin.

The good news is that my paper box is empty.  Well not entirely empty.  As I worked through paperwork, I occasionally grabbed a postcard to send a quick hi to friends and family.  You can see them all sitting there, stamped and ready.  Just have to grab those on the way out the door.

I keep my paper box on the top of our bookshelf… the bookshelf that just happens to be next week’s decluttering project!

So hooray!  I’ve crossed off this week’s goal.  My box is empty.

Here’s how I made it happen:

I like to keep our filing cabinet incredibly organized and simple. Every file is organized by category, then subject.  That way we can find whatever we need for taxes or – and this seems to happen a whole lot more – we can easily walk other people through the contents of our files when we’re overseas.  When bills get paid, I’ll write “pd” (paid) and the date.  The only challenge is taking the time to then put those suckers into our filing cabinet… which is what this week was all about.  I like to tack papers down onto the file folder like you’d see at a law office.  That way everything is always chronological.  Again – so much easier for future reference.

The file folder in the very front of our filing cabinet holds scratch paper. Any paper that is blank on one side automatically goes into the file.  It’s perfect for printing test copies of journal pages or other documents.  It’s one more way to slow the process of garbage/recycling heading out our door, and you’d be surprised how easy it is to fill that folder.

The last thing I did was streamline all the small papers, stamps, and little Gadanke supplies that were starting to clutter my desk. Some simple notecards and an old plastic basket offered the perfect setup.  It’s as easy as pie, and now I know exactly where to find everything.

And by the way.  All that scrap paper in the front?  That’s those journal test prints.  Since they have so much blank space for journaling and I can’t use them any more as full sheets, they’re still perfect for jotting a quick phone number or note.  It beats buying a little pad of paper any day!

Remember this page from my {Love Where We Live} journal about our home in Berlin?  Martin actually used one of those repurposed pieces of scrap paper from journal test prints and wrote a little note to tuck into my school books one day.  Isn’t that the sweetest 100%-recycled-paper…that-gets-printed-on…then-printed-on-again…then-cut-into-scrap-paper note ever?

(The scrap paper excerpt came from this journal.)

But enough about our house and my first decluttering project.  How did you do?  Were you able to finish?  Did you go above and beyond?  Anyone already moving onto decluttering project #2?  Wherever you stand, do tell, do tell!

Don’t forget The Decluttering Project main page – a directory of all sorts of tips and tricks for various decluttering issues.  May be just the ticket for your next to-do.