Step 2: Sort and purge.
Now it's time to make decisions about what will stay and what will go. You'll be sorting items into two categories: Keep and Recycle/Shred.
First, gather the loose papers, magazines, newspapers, etc. and bring them to your sorting area, preferably a clean, flat surface, like your dining table or kitchen counter.
Next, set out some boxes or bags for recycling and shredding. Bankers boxes work well for starting temporary files for the paper you are keeping.
Then the real work begins: Pick up each piece and make a decision about whether it goes or stays. If it stays, begin creating categories and group all like papers together.
If you can't decide what to keep, put it to the test by answering the following questions:
- Who does the paper belong to?
- Does the paper have a purpose and what is that purpose?
- When might you need the paper if it is not important right now?
- Where might you use the paper?
If you can't answer the above questions, then recycle or shred the paper.
For magazines and newspapers you want to keep parts of, try these strategies from professional organizer Linda Koopersmith.
- Stick a Post-It on a magazine when you first begin reading it, marking down page numbers for articles you'd like to keep. Most consumer magazines now come with a page of stickers or bookmarks you can also use for the same purpose. After you're finished, find each entry and tear or cut out the page. Place them in a three-ring binder and use tabs to divide them by subject.
- Use an index for magazines that are kept intact — include magazine name, article/recipe title and date. Place this index in the binder with the other articles and store the magazines in a box in the garage or a closet. Label the box with the magazine name and dates, so you can get the right one quickly.
- When you like an article in a newspaper, cut it out instead of keeping the whole paper. Recycle the rest.
- After cutting out an article, instead of placing it in a pile or box, glue it to a white sheet of paper. One sheet of paper can hold an article on each side. Insert these articles in a binder and divide them into sections to make them easy to find.
