By Carolyn Rogers

I’ve been organizing professionally for over a decade, helping clients with closets, garages, kitchens, offices, and even storage units. A common issue I come across in all these spaces is paper clutter.   

I’ll be bold and say that 90% of the people that I’ve worked with have had some issue with paper, including: 

• Excess papers buried under bags or boxes. 
• Overaccumulation of papers piled in stacks and mountains on flat surfaces.  
• Being unable to find the important pieces of the paper when they need it.  

Some clients are so overwhelmed with the amount of paper that they literally hid it away and tried to forget about it until they “have free time” to handle it—time we all secretly know will never come but don’t want to admit aloud.  

Other clients don’t know what to keep, how long to keep it, where to keep it so they could find it when needed, etc.  

Whether they had too much, or simply couldn’t find it, one thing that all clients have had in common is that they found it stressful. Stressed by the clutter. Anxious about having to search. Worried that they’ll suddenly be in dire need of that bank statement from ten years ago that they never actually opened. This is the grip that paper has on some of us.   

I’ve also noticed that it’s an epidemic that affects the more senior generations. It seems that Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials are the clients who struggle the most with letting go of paper. Perhaps it’s because we grew up in a hard copy world. Everything was done on paper. Paper was your proof. Paper was our source of information.  

The younger generations, such as Gen Z and Alpha, don’t seem to have the same attachment. Perhaps it’s because most things in their lives thus far have been online.  Paper was never their primary source of information, entertainment, salvation, etc. 

The truth is, we live in an increasingly digital world. Much of our life is already online and paper is becoming not only unnecessary but also inconvenient. So, what’s a BoomXlennial to do?   

For some, the idea of paperless sounds scary and stressful, so I recommend going mostly paperless. Or as paperless as you can.   

What does that mean? It means, keep all your necessary papers (legal, financial, etc.) as well as some of your “it makes me feel better to physically have it” papers, but let go of the “if I’m honest, I’ll never look at or need this again” papers. 

This will require you to do some soul searching and confront your habits and needs.  Most paper enters your home by mail.  

Here’s a quick, easy example. Pay attention to the mail that you never open or look at: 

• throw it away/shred immediately. 
• go to that business online and opt out of mailings altogether or select the paperless option under your profile. 

Whatever information the hard copy paper is providing, that is not how you receive that information, so don’t let it become something that contributes to your stress later.   

Here are some suggestions for getting started on your Mostly Paperless Journey: 

1. Reduce clutter and purge your unnecessary paper. I don’t subscribe to just throwing everything away and starting over. I’ve seen important “keep forever” documents mixed in with weekly sales papers often enough to know that you at least have to lay eyes on everything. The trick is to lay eyes on each piece long enough to determine if you need to keep it, shred it, or just toss it. Don’t try to fully read everything during your purge session(s). It will take forever, you’ll get discouraged, and the stockpile will grow. 

2. When you’re down to the “keep it” pile, decide if it should be kept in physical form (birth certificates, passports, legal docs, etc.) or if it can be scanned and stored digitally. 

3. Decide where/how you’re going to keep the papers that must be in physical form. Designate a space to keep it and create a filing system that makes sense to you. Don’t feel like you need to have a file cabinet. Some people are stackers and that’s OK. There is room in this world for stacking and piling, too. There is no formula for how to create your system. All that matters is that you can find what you need when you need it. 

4. For your digital files, plan for backing up files so you are not at risk of losing large amounts of information. This can be a physical external drive or a cloud service. Cloud storage (such as Google Drive and Dropbox) is an option for basic files. But if you choose to store more sensitive information in a cloud service, make sure the services has adequate cyber security to protect your data. 

Don’t let too much (or too little) paper stress you out. Find your paperless comfort zone and settle in. It doesn’t have to be completely free of paper. Just free of the paper that isn’t serving your needs. 

Share your favorite paper organizing hacks in the comments! 

No shame in asking for help. Use our directory to find a NAPO pro near you who specializes in exactly what you need: napo.empowereddirectory.com.

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Meet the author, Carolyn Rogers