Paperwork is so overwhelming! I have a small accordion file box with about 20 different categories and once a year I go through it and make sure I’m not keeping anything that’s no longer relevant. I collect a stack of papers in my office and then about once a month (ish) go through and file them. When I get mail I try to immediately either put it in the “to file” stack, or shred it/recycle. Buying a shredder for home felt excessive, but my paper situation got so much better so quickly once I spent just buckled down and spent the $30
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The UPS stores near me have locked bins from Iron Mountain, the same company my last job used. It’s $1 or so per pound of paper / CDs / DVDs. I’m getting rid of my shredder before my next move and never buying another one.
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I try to prune immediately. I recycle junk right away and also have a mail and bills kit right next to my dining table. It has envelopes, stamps, checks, and a pen.
If it’s a todo (form or bill) it just goes onto the surface of my counter or desk (separate from existing papers) which I abhor so it gets dealt with within a few days or so. No piles! Piles scare me and then I never deal with them.
I bought a filing cabinet a few years ago. I prune every few years so 2 adults + 2 kids still only take up one drawer. SSN, passports, appliance warranties, etc. Temporary folders for current tax year & any major projects are right up front, and I purge those at tax return time every year.
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I WOULDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS
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Catalogues! Think Dahlia’s for tall girl jeans 
order your special sheets from JC penny catalogue, the fuzzy PJs from lands end, so on. Specialty stuff when I was a kid was all from catalogues. And proto MLM stuff- pampered chef parties and Mary Kay and all that.
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I feel like my system is simple, but it’s mostly so I don’t forget where things are. everything has a home.
I have a mail box (not an actual mail box, just a box where mail goes. it’s open and I can see what’s in there and I walk by it everyday so I remember to open the mail). once I open it and decide if I need to keep it, it goes into a box with a lid (a fancy pile I don’t have to look at). if it’s something I need to do, it gets put on the fridge with a magnet clip so I remember.
when the box gets full, I spend an hour (usually less) and decide what needs to be kept and then it goes in the filing cabinet and is sorted by a system to works for me (tax, house, health, misc) and then I usually will never look at it again, but I know where it is and it’s not in my face.
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Lol how could I forget those–flipping through catalogues (before I had any spending power) was a big part of my childhood too
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I used to avoid this because I was afraid to see things I then wanted to buy. But I can be strong! And @ElleP thanks for reminding me that IKEA exists–there is one nearby.
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The thing I’ve done recently- find specialty sites that curate specific brands. So, Bella Luna toys for example to find boujie fancy wood etc Montessori/Waldorf toys. And similar ideas for skincare and supplements (I go through iHerb) and finding direct websites for brands and ordering straight from them- with ShopPay now it’s easier than entering your CC with a whole different system each time. I also find a surprising amount of things at our farmers market and Costco
I, too, am trying to avoid amazon etc
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My system is still pretty adhoc. But mostly:
by subject and then in a vague pile by year:
Tax stuff gets its own box, keep for 9 years (I think? In practice havent had to prune yet)
House stuff gets one box (appliance warranties, records of service calls etc)
Personal sentimental gets its own box - cards and photos etc
Misc “important papers” is a final box - things like letters from health insurance. Ideally this stuff gets scanned/digitized and then I trash the originals
Permanent important docs get another place too. Passport birth certificate etc.
I also keep a dropbox digital folder organized by year. So like one directory that says “adulting” and then subfolders for each year. No organization inside it. Makes it easier to keep up with and it’s easy enough to find something if needed. I try to give things real file names but if I don’t, it actually doesn’t take too long to be like “welp let me check the scans from the last year ish”
Details vary but the most important thing is to have a system so I CAN process the paper piles when I have time. There will always be piles. But ideally not big piles and getting the categories in place ahead of time makes the whole process easier.
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My secret weapon for print stuff is binders & plastic sleeves over folders! Because then it’s visual, you can lay it totally open/flat while it stays orderly, and you can put sticky notes on papers that stay there because sleeves.
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Oh! And I like these style of boxes with hanging folders.
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I just got a toddler pillow from Avocado. Expensive but I’m weird about pillows and kid definitely has my allergies. I go direct to manufacturer websites when possible. Now I wish I checked ikea first!!
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We got ours from Woolino 
I went full boujie hippy with it.
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My system is to take anything that needs dealing with down to it’s most basic requirements (toss extra pages and envelopes and whatnot) and then if I can’t deal with it right then, it sits on the edge of the kitchen island so I HAVE to see it.
Once handled, there is an accordion folder that tax stuff, warranties for jewelry, passports, important health info…etc live in. House related things live in the giant house binder.
My system breaks down when my husband decides to tidy and moves my TO DO pile into the far corner of the kitchen counter and I lose it forever.
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I have everything in one folder. I try to minimize paperwork by getting electronic documents when I can, but for the rest it’s in one folder. I like that if I need an admin paper I just pick my folder and take the document
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I have a basket with Sides. All the income tax papers get tossed into it as they come in (Ie, a charitable donation receipt could happen at any point in the year).
The sides are clutch.
Bills etc I have the kids put on my desk, and try to deal with immediatly.
I have a recycling bin for envelopes and stuffers right at the desk.
(I also have a 1 foot pile of papers behind me that I will deal with tomorrow if I need an inlaw break, that is left over from moving chaos, and I think is a combo of work cheat cheats, J1’s funding, and - whatever else came in while we were in flux)
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Here are my thoughts. There are really multiple projects:
- Go through/organize papers and find any next steps that have been missed.
- Come up with a system for processing papers in a way that avoids/minimizes future piles.
- Declutter extra papers that you don’t need but require some thinking (eg old EOBs).
When I did this for our papers, I did 1 and 2, but not 3. I sorted by topic and put anything that required action in a pile. I made file folders with labels by topic, so eg 2022 taxes, house maintenance.
My goal was get to a place where I can find things I need but not to fully declutter papers. I threw out obvious trash but otherwise kept stuff, because that’s a project for future Bern.
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When you look at the gains in your retirement accounts, you need to deduct your deposits, right?
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it depends on what you’re trying to understand or calculate.
I have always just measured what I have, and not tracked what I put in. This probably helped when I was just shovelling in and not having it pointed out just how much was being lost to the market.
But it is probably less helpful for other forms of record keeping.
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