Quick Tricks to Conquer the Paper Pileup

When tackling household paperwork, try these ideas to speed filing and finding information in your organized home:

•  File daily. Keep “to file” items from piling up and cramping your style and your filing area by filing daily. Send mail to action files as you sort it; tuck completed items straight into their basic folder after you pay or review them.

•  Clean out files yearly. Spring cleaning isn’t just for walls and windows. Tax season is a great time to clean out files, shredding items you no longer need to keep.

•  Firm up a filing position. Do you file papers to the front of each folder so the newest ones show up first, or do you prefer to file to the back so documents arrange themselves chronologically? Both methods have their partisans, but consistency is more important. Pick a filing position, and then stick to it to avoid confusion and the rearranging of papers.

•  Tab to the front. If you place tabs on hanging file folders on the front edge of the file, you’ll always be able to see them. Placed on the back edge, papers stored inside the file can obscure the tabs, making them harder to read.

•  Junk the junk mail. Cut down on paper clutter by putting a stop to unwanted catalogs and promotional mailings. To opt out of catalogs quickly, check online; many companies provide a simple form for subscription removal. Removing your name from a list takes just a few seconds.

•  Banish the filing backlog. Getting organized in an ideal world, we’d start fresh with new filing and paperwork systems. The reality is, many of us have large stacks of neglected papers to cope with. To nibble the stacks down in record time, attack the job in tiny increments, such as every day during a commercial break in a favorite television program. Review, toss, and file just 10 to 20 items in short breaks to keep forward momentum flowing.