{"id":3961,"date":"2016-08-04T14:35:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T18:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thatorganicmom.com\/?p=3961"},"modified":"2022-06-29T16:23:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T20:23:09","slug":"konmari-method-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thatorganicmom.com\/konmari-method-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"KonMari Method Paper Decluttering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paper cluttering, doesn't that phrase just get you all excited? No? Me either, but\u2026 I f<\/span>inally made it to finishing the paper category! I put off this task for a while, because frankly, I\u2019ve really been a slacker at keeping my papers and documents organized. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[Tweet “Kondo's Rule of Thumb: Discard everything…”]<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

Yes, you read that right; Kondo says papers are annoying and never inspire joy<\/strong>. I'm just going to be honest, when I read that line (twice actually<\/em>) I started wondering if the author of this little book has some\u00a0form of OCD. I'm not making fun of people who truly have obsessive compulsive disorder, I have a mild form of it according to my therapist. Hey, we recognize our own…<\/span><\/p>\n

Kondo certainly didn't have children at the time she wrote this book. Just her matter of fact way of discarding everything, it's quite unusual. Yes, I understand the concept. Most parents cannot just toss everything with reckless abandon. That's just my opinion and what I think of the author is really irrelevant except that it's hard to take advice from someone you don't relate to; I certainly cannot relate to this author. \u00a0(I already mentioned that I put my own twist\u00a0on “thanking” my items for being useful;\u00a0#6 in this post<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n

While I'm not a packrat, I'm not a minimalist either. \u00a0I think I've been filing all\u00a0documents, receipts, paid bills, unnecessary duplicated medical records, lists and I can't even name what else into my filing cabinet for the last 8 years without really knowing if I needed these papers or not. I wanted to be on the “safe side” when it comes to papers. \u00a0I didn't need<\/strong> to decide if any of this mess sparked joy because it did not. When it comes to papers all I wanted to know what experts say you should keep.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could lay my hands on all of my kids important documents, our car titles, insurance policies etc. as they were all stored in my house! I found out that is not a great idea, and I had never really thought about it before. <\/span><\/p>\n

I also struggled with what to keep and what to throw away. Kondo explains that papers with sentimental value such as love letters (or letters from my daughters) as well as old diaries do not fall into the \u201cpapers\u201d category. So rest your heart, no one is going to tell you to throw those away… at least not yet! <\/span><\/p>\n

To help myself, and share what I have learned with my readers, I compiled a list of what other\u00a0experts recommend as far as what papers to keep, for how long and what to throw away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what my floor looked like after I pulled out everything from my filing cabinet, all the stuff older than 7 years I threw on the floor, I don't know why because later I had to pick it all up. So if you declutter your papers, don't do that…also, if you suffer from anxiety you may want to avert your eyes.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2944\"<\/p>\n

The sad truth is, I had not even used any document or anything else from this file besides documents that should not have even been stored in there in the first place. I had booklets and warranties on appliances I didn't even own anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, Kondo says \u201cthrow them all away\u201d (p. 96 if you don\u2019t believe me) she reiterates, \u201cI recommend you dispose of anything that does not fall into one of three categories: currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinitely<\/strong>.\u201d This last category is where I felt I had the most confusion. I didn't feel confident after reading her chapter on paper so I confided in some official American websites, but we'll get to that later.<\/p>\n

Let's talk about it<\/h2>\n

First category: Currently In Use<\/h3>\n

Kondo\u00a0basically breaks this down into two more categories, papers that need to be saved and papers you need to do something with. Forms that need to be submitted, articles you intend to read, applications you need to fill out, etc. Kondo suggests keeping these in one place and not to let them get spread around the house. For me, I open the mail and sort accordingly right when it comes out of the mailbox. We pay almost all of our bills online and receive paperless statements etc.<\/p>\n

This category should be pretty small as long as you deal with paper quickly and methodically. I try to only handle it once. Kondo says you shouldn't require a “needs attention” box. She says if you have a box that accumulates things that need attention it means you have things in your life that you are leaving undone.<\/p>\n

Second category: Limited period of time paper category<\/h3>\n

This category pretty much includes contracts (maybe car lease, apartment\u00a0rental, etc.) and records that you won't need to keep forever. These papers I did keep in my cabinet along with a file folder for each of my children with copies of their important documents, school records, etc.<\/p>\n

Experts recommend\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Papers you can replace when you recieve a new one:<\/span><\/p>\n