By Dave Ulacia

If you’re like the rest of us, your goal to get organized in 2010 includes tackling mounds of paper. Paper seems to be one of the biggest sources of clutter all of us deal with. So how do you reduce and manage the paper that comes into your home or office?  Here are a few suggestions.

First, decide what you absolutely need to store.  Studies have shown that once a paper has been placed in a file cabinet, chances of it ever seeing the light of day again are somewhere between slim and none. Take a look at your file cabinet. You didn’t need us to tell you that, did you? Someday you will need to clean out your file cabinet. Save yourself some effort later by being very selective about what you place in it now.

Second, be careful about what you print. If you can avoid printing email, web pages, and even faxes, you will cut down on a significant amount of paper clutter automatically. Most of those documents can be viewed on your computer monitor and stored on your hard drive.  After you’ve viewed these documents, you can decide if it’s worth it to you to print them.

Third, store documents electronically. If you think you may need to reference something later, consider scanning it and saving it on your computer. Then you simply have to browse to find what you need. (Chances are, you’ll be at your computer when you need it anyway.)

Fourth, store your paper so you’ll find it again. Label the box, drawer, or folder in a way that makes sense to you and keep it in a logical location.  We have several options for storing paper on our site that can keep your home or office orderly and looking nice.

Before you place a paper in your file cabinet, ask yourself these questions:

• Will I look for this in the next five years, and why?
• Do I have an electronic copy of this document?
• Can I store it in a more accessible format such as scanning and saving it electronically?
• Is there a legal reason for me to keep this paperwork?
• How should I label this storage space so I can easily find this document again?

Of course, these are only a few ways you can tackle the paper clutter in your life. Keep checking in for more great ideas from our GO Gurus.

Thank you Dave! Did you enjoy this article? Give it a cheer!

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