Ask America’s Ultimate Experts
“Help! I’m drowning
in paper clutter!”
Getting rid of paper clutter can be fast and easy, say
our pros! Here’s how to banish the paper mess for good!
Get
started in seconds!
Cure paper procrastination!
Find it hard to part with paper? You’re not alone!
It’s the number-one clutter problem, say our
panel of professional organizers. And getDid
ting started is often the hardest part. “If
you’re drowning in paper, don’t worry
you knobwill-?
about the mountains of paper from the
Paperless es
sh
past,” urges pro organizer Dorothy
paying sla ld
o
h
se
Breininger. “Concentrate instead on right
hou
!
now—the papers for this month or this
clutter 25%
year. Narrowing your focus takes the pressure off and gets you started.”
room on your book shelves and place the piles in
Begin with no-brainers!
plain sight,” Breininger adds. The most important
Pick a paper-packed room like
part? “Keep your piles pretty by putting them in
your kitchen (the hub of your
colorful flat serving dishes or baskets without lids,
home is a top clutter magnet!)
because the minute you have to lift something
and set a timer for, say, eight
like a lid, it becomes work again,” she explains.
minutes, suggests “Zen” organizer Regina Leeds. “Then
Make a “Sunday basket”!
just toss what you know for
“Women are multifaceted, multifunctional
sure you don’t need, like
multitaskers,” says organizing whiz Lisa
expired circulars and junk
Woodruff. A very accurate description—
mail.” Not sure if somebut what does it have to do with paper
thing is toss-able? “Use
clutter? “The things that make us
the two-rule,” she urgso dynamic and interesting, also
es. “If a newspaper is
leave us with a lot of random
more than two days
papers lying around,” she notes.
old, toss it. And if a
“That’s why I have what I call the
catalog is more
Sunday basket. When I get
than two months
something that doesn’t need
old, off to the
immediate attention, like a birthrecycle bin it
day party invite for my kids, I stick it
goes.” If there’s an article in the paper
in the Sunday basket. Then at 8 p.m. on Sunday,
you know you want to read, just grab a pair of I look at what I’ve collected and ask myself ‘does
scissors and cut it out. “With speed-elimination, this need action now, or can it wait until next Sunall of a sudden the four piles on your kitchen day?’ While I may need to RSVP
counter get whittled down to two—fast results to the party invite or use a
that really get you going,” promises Leeds.
particular coupon, the
furniture catalogue
Create a pile system!
The paper “program” 90% of Breininger’s clients can stay in the basuse to get their piles in order? More piles! The ket. It’s an easy
key, though, is to reorganize the stacks you way to give random
already have by putting like with like. For exam- papers a quick
ple, place medical papers in one pile, classroom home—and I don’t
volunteer material in another, bills with bills in have to think about
another—then place sticky notes on top of each them until the end of
pile so you know what’s where. “Make some the week!”
Our expert panel
Dorothy Breininger—
author of seven books,
including Stuff Your Face
or Face Your Stuff—is an
expert organizer for the A&E
show Hoarders. Visit her at
DorothyTheOrganizer.com.
22
WOMAN’S WORLD 9/16/13
document2618034875307359114.indd 22
Regina Leeds—author of
One Year to an Organized
Life and The 8-Minute Organizer—has been a professional organizer for more
than 20 years. Visit her at
OrganizeWithRegina.com.
No-stress strategies!
TAPP away clutter!
Breininger advises adopting
the TAPP action plan for
whenever new paper
comes in. “The ‘T’
stands for toss, so I
ask myself ‘do I want
to toss this?’ If no, I
move on to “A” for
‘act on it.’ Say it’s a
bill. I either pay it or put
it in a file folder marked To do
this week.” If you don’t want to act on it? The first
“P” is for pass it on. “If, for instance, it’s a reminder to have the car serviced, and I don’t want to
deal with it myself—I’ll pass it on to my husband.”
The final “P” is for pile. “Say I get an invitation,
and I love its design. I’ll put it in my ‘idea pile’ and
use something similar for my daughter’s graduation next year. With TAPP, in just a few minutes,
every paper has found a place!” says Breininger.
Make it automatic!
“Make organizing automatic by using outside
cues,” urges Leeds. “For example, when
today’s newspaper arrives, that’s your cue to
automatically toss the old one.” Also smart?
“Try to handle mail in the same place every
day and make it a ritual, so it’s also
relaxing. When the tea kettle whistles, for
example, that’s your cue to sit down and
open the mail. Sipping the tea helps you
slow down so you don’t rush and accidentally
toss something important.”
—Kristina Mastrocola
Organizing whiz Lisa
Woodruff (Organize
365.com) is the author
of the e-books 10 Steps
to Organized Paper and
10 Steps to Organizing
Photos and Memorabilia.
Photos: Kelli Belangia Shrivastava; courtesy of subject (2); JUNIORS
BILDARCHIV/age fotostock; MediaBakery (2); Radius Images/Getty Images.
8/21/13 6:25 AM