Happy Earth Day!
This week I’m tackling paper clutter piles that have been ignored in our bedroom. My employer hosts an annual confidential paper shredding event in honor of Earth Day that I always take part in. It’s a great way to get a large amount of sensitive paper clutter out of the house at one time.
The First Major Shredding Event
The first year I took part in the event was my first serious effort in getting rid of unnecessary paperwork. When I found out about the shredding event three years ago, it motivated me to shred years of monthly utility bills and credit card statements that I had been keeping unnecessarily.
I used to have a working paper shredder, but it died several years ago. I’m not sure why, but I still have it! I think that I was hoping it would someday start working again or my handy husband would be able to fix it. Neither of those things are going to happen – so in the trash it goes!
Our broken shredder
My Paper Bags
Throughout the year, I continually put all the papers that need to be shredded into a paper bag that I hold onto until Earth Day. Here’s what I had for this year:
3 bags for Earth Day Shredding
There would be a much larger pile of papers here, but at the beginning of the year, I went through and recycled a large pile of old letters, expired insurance policy packets, and drawings that had been stored in my filing cabinet. I loved reading through the letters, but also didn’t feel the need to keep them anymore.
I did go through the file drawer to try to gather other papers that could be shredded as well. Some instruction manuals, magazine clippings, and other monthly bills that had been stacked in a pile were put in the shred bag.
Magazines
I LOVE magazines. Our local recycling program has magazines that you can subscribe to with your recycling points. I was so excited about this little perk that I subscribed to 2-3 magazines the first year. I discovered that I really don’t have time to read through 2-3 magazines a month – they were piling up unread. Life is just too busy.
I also used to pull pages out of the magazines to refer to later, but I realized that I never look at them later. I’ve started putting a note in my phone with the information that I want to keep or look up later. As soon as I’m done, I put it in the recycling bin. That has helped me keep the magazine clutter to a minimum. Limiting myself to only one magazine a year also helps!
Paper Clutter Before
Paper Clutter After
Everything was recycled or filed away in the bottom of this file cabinet. The small pile of papers next to the file cabinet are things I’m still considering whether to keep or not. I’m hoping to attempt to go paperless in the future and get rid of the file cabinet all together.
Next time, I’ll share the paper filing system that has been really helpful.
What are the ways you keep your paper clutter at bay? I’d love to hear!
Our shredder died also. Lately, tho, I’ve had good luck at simply unscrewing broken things and looking inside, which, I suspect, is what “handy” people do. I have a feeling that paper creates a large amount of paper dust when you shred it, and that this may be the culprit that makes them die so regularly. My hope is a good cleaning out of the innards may resurrect it.
BUT
I DO, also, have a bankers’ box full of old utility bills in the basement. Maybe I can get Roland to sit and shred them when I get the shredder going again. Maybe. 🙂
Ahh! I should’ve let you know about the shredding event! I don’t think it’s just for employees. If it’s still in the basement next Earth Day, let me know!
I used to be a huge fan of magazines, but Pinterest seems to satisfy the urge for “eye candy”/decorating ideas. If I have magazines on hand, I always recycle them at the local library — people like decorating and news magazines. Or, I donate them to a nearby hospital. When I spent a week in waiting rooms with a terminally ill parent in CICU, the magazines that others had donated to the hospital really helped to keep me sane. I figure I can help others by simply donating them.
And, lastly, I’ve gone paperless on my bills. It is easy to do, all payments are automatic from my checking accounts and I hope I’m saving trees by consciously keeping track of my bills through the internet rather than relying on the mail.
Those are great ideas Jones. Thanks for sharing. I agree – donating magazines is great. I once donated to a women’s shelter who wanted a specific magazine which I had numerous copies of!
What a fabulous public service to offer shredding to staff and others. I bet your shredder just had dust on a sensor and a clean of the sensors would have fixed it. We had to pull ours apart because the dog knocked it over and the circuit board didn’t align with the buttons. It worked once we re positioned everything though.
Hi Stella – our paper shredder is working! After Peg mentioned taking hers apart I did a little test and it worked! I think it’s a little touchy but I plugged it in and it’s working! I agree, it’s a great service to us. Thanks for commenting
Hi! – Great inspiring post and I’m all for a bit of paper taming! – My question is – do you do your own shredding on a machine at home or do you get someone else to do it? – thanks! Chrissy x
Hi Chrissy, my employer has an annual Earth Day shredding event that is free to employees and I’ve been saving up my papers requiring shredding for the year. It does add some clutter but not much, especially after I brought a huge load of papers the first year. I just recycle other papers that don’t need to be shredded. Thanks!
Sounds like a great plan! Thanks for the reply x
Decluttering paper is turning out to be my longest task, but I’m also decluttering the bound versions of my course notes and articles as part of paper. We had a ton of paperwork in the attic that I recycled or have set aside to shred. (BTW, a friend of mine told me that Office Depot will shred things for a fee.) Ultimately, I kept 7 years of tax information, medical records, important documents (birth certificates and marriage license), mortgage paperwork, and a few sheets with current account information on them. Much of this could be scanned and kept probably. It all fits in one or two accordion folders, so we sold our two drawer file cabinet in our yard sale on Sunday.
My big problem is that I still tend to take notes by hand for so many things and deciding how to digitize those is a pain. I try to put as much as possible directly into Evernote but it doesn’t always happen. And I’m still going through that pile of course materials and then will probably have to spend a significant time scanning things I want to keep. And then there are the years of paper correspondence…
Hi Susannah! I am just starting to use Evernote regularly and love the camera option. I’ve been taking photos of some magazine pages I’ve torn out and think I want to keep – mostly recipes. Good luck with the paper correspondence. Let me know what you decide to keep out of the letters. I found the letters didn’t have as much impact re-reading them and I didn’t feel the need to keep them
I did this last summer after tackling my basement. Like a lot of my decluttering and purging in the last year, I’ll probably go back and do another, closer round of downsizing now that I know better what I really don’t need and haven’t used since the first round. And how great it feels to get rid of things and live lighter!!