10 Tips For Organizing Paperwork That’ll Eliminate Paper Clutter

If you are sick of looking at piles of messy papers or fumbling around the house regularly searching for bills or receipts, these ten ideas for organizing paperwork are going help you out big time!

Depending on how much paperwork you have, organizing your papers can be really time consuming, but once you get an effective organizing system in place everything will be so much easier! If you keep up with it daily, even if it is just five minutes a day, your paper clutter will stay at bay.

Check out these awesome ideas below and be sure to follow my Amazing Organizing Ideas Board on Pinterest to help you be the most organized version of yourself for 2018!!

1. Organize your recipes on Pinterest instead of printing them out.

Make boards for different categories of recipes, for example “Quick Dinners”, “Healthy Recipes”, “Desserts, “Kid Snacks”, etc. Below is a screenshot of some of my boards on  Pinterest.

Having just one recipe board didn’t cut it for me because the more recipes you have the harder it is to go back into your board and find it.  Sorting my recipes by categories instead made everything so much easier, it’s like creating a digital cookbook for yourself!

2. Another option is to create a recipe binder.

Okay, so some of you may not like to keep track of all your recipes digitally and would rather have a hard copy. For you guys I recommend creating a recipe binder so you don’t have print outs of recipes adding to your paper clutter.

There are tons of free printable recipe binder ideas on Pinterest.  I like this free printable recipe binder from Fab n’ Free.

3. Get rid of papers you don’t need anymore.

Maybe you haven’t purged those papers because you’re not sure how long you need to keep them. With certain important papers you might need to keep for years and for others only months. Luckily, Clean Mama made this awesome FREE cheat sheet.

4. Make sure you are shredding papers you don’t need, not just throwing them in the trash.

To piggy back on the last tip of getting rid of papers you don’t need anymore, it is VERY important you shred all those papers, not just throw them in the trash.

People go through the trash trying to find papers or bills that have personal information about you.  Always be safe and shred these papers, even when it seems like an extra step.

5. Go paperless for bills and statements whenever possible.

This might seem obvious, but I have a couple of bills I just haven’t gotten around to going paperless with yet. Some of you like seeing a hard copy of your bills but for those of you who don’t mind going paperless it will drastically cut down on your paper clutter.

6. Sort your daily mail in baskets. 

In can sometimes be so tempting to get off work and just pile your mail on the counter, but taking just a minute to sort your mail in these baskets will make everything more manageable in the long run. These Kmart baskets got a cute, industrial style makeover with this cute DIY project.  (Via A House Full of Sunshine)

7. Create a kitchen command center. 

Organize all your paperwork, receipts, and binders in a designated space. I really love this command center because it does not take up a lot of space and think it is so clever how she put pockets inside her cabinet door to organize receipts and papers. Be sure to check out all her tips on how she made this awesome command center! (Via Organizing Home Life)

8. File all your pictures and store in boxes.

It can be so overwhelming organizing pictures because as the years go by you accumulate so many! This method is great because you sort your pictures by year and file into boxes. Luckily, most of your pictures are digital now, so you won’t have to keep adding to your boxes of pictures! (Via Modern Parents Messy Kids)

9. Use an expanding file folder to organize all the paperwork in your car. 

We always forget about the car, but peek into most people’s glove compartments and you will find a jumbled mess of papers like car registration, manuals, auto receipts, etc.  You can buy organizers like this really cheap at the Dollar Store, love this idea!  (Via Day In My Life)

10. Set up a filing system that is color coded.

There are many different filing methods out there but I found A Bowl Full of Lemon’s Filing System was the most simplified and straightforward with just five categories. This system is awesome because she does all the leg work of suggesting  categories and folder names, all you have to do is tweak it a little to your life, set up your folders, and file!

Bonus Ideas For Wrangling Up Receipts

 My biggest paper offense is having receipts everywhere!  Below are a couple cool ways to get a handle on your receipts and best of all these organizers are really cheap.

Make your own inexpensive envelope organizer and sort all your receipts by categories. (Via SC Johnson,  Family Economics Blog, by Cathe Holden)

Hey, sometimes we just don’t have time to sort through our receipts.  In these instances it is better to have your receipts in one place instead of on the floor or at the bottom of your purse.  Create your own receipt drop box with this clever Kleenex box hack and be sure to check out her entire post on organizing receipts! (Via All In All)

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