Are You Being Buried Alive in Paper?: Konmari Organizing Steps 2 and 3

Paper is one of the biggest contributors to clutter in many people's homes. Look around you. Do you have take-out menus and kid's artwork hanging on the refrigerator? What about that pile of mail on the table by the front door? Do you have half-written in journals, notebooks, unpaid bills, and other miscellaneous papers spread out all over the dining room table and kitchen counters? Do you have a pile of books, newspapers or unread magazines next to your chair or couch just waiting for that day when you miraculously will have time to read them?  Do you have old school notebooks, work conference or seminar notes, money market reports, bank statements, 20 years of tax paperwork and receipts all neatly organized and packed in "way too many" boxes in your attic, basement and/or garage?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will benefit from using the Konmari method to clear out this clutter once and for all. It will be a lot of work but the sense of freedom you feel when it is done is worth it!

Eliminating paper clutter in your home can help to create a beautiful and peaceful space you want to live in.

So, what is Marie Kondo's Konmari method for PAPER? Usually, she tells you to pick up something and ask, "Does this spark joy?". Well, with paper, she says, "THROW IT ALL AWAY!" Now, wait. Before you all start yelling at me in the comments, she doesn't mean to actually throw it all away. What she means, is that if you start with that thought in your head, you will only "rescue" those items that are absolutely irreplaceable. This helped me a lot.  

So, what are some of my irreplaceable things?

• Legal Identity Documents: passports, social security cards, birth certificates, marriage licenses, church records like baptismal or confirmation certificates, and if you care for someone else copies of the power of attorney documents
• Certificates, Licenses, and Diplomas: teachers, hair salon stylists, taxi drivers, and many others are required to have certificates to prove that they are qualified to do their jobs.
• Registrations, Insurances, and Warranties:  If you are required to carry these things on your person or produce them upon demand, keep a paper copy. If you have digital copies consider shredding the paper versions.
• Finances and Tax Records: Keep only what is irreplaceable! If you can call and get another copy or have access to a copy online, get rid of the paper.  This is where I needed to take time to do some research to learn what was required by law.  Doing this research took extra time but was worth it. I also invested in a smartphone app called "Taxbot" that lets me scan and sort all my work and RV life receipts. This allowed me to shred 7 years of receipts that I was saving with my tax records. Wow! That felt good!
• Magazine Clippings, Travel Brochures and Recipes: I call these the "someday I will do that" pile. Be honest with yourself and admit that while the information looked interesting when you cut it out of the magazine or grabbed the brochure at the welcome center, but you can easily find the information again online.  If you really want to keep it and will use it soon, Marie suggests that you should put them in a pending box.  I will tell you more about the pending box later in this blog post.
• Other? Read Marie's book or watch her show on Netflix to learn what things you might need to keep. Everyone's life is different and we have different needs. I am just sharing how the process worked for me to inspire you to try it.

Now, if you are like me, you will find this whole process of purging paperwork to be very stressful and exhausting. Don't quit. BE BRAVE! Keep pushing through the process. You will learn a lot about yourself. What did I learn? Well, I learned that I was keeping papers unnecessarily out of FEAR!  What was so frightening that I kept all this paperwork?

There were two questions that kept coming up when I was debating on keeping something that wasn't really necessary or sparking joy:

• Will I Get Hurt: What if the government requires that I prove I did something properly? If I throw it away will I get in trouble? What if I do something wrong? I solved this problem by taking the time to learn. I got online and researched the legal requirements of documents on health records, small business ownership, retirement funds, and home sales. This research is something I needed to do and have been putting off for a long time.
• Will I Hurt Someone's Feelings: If something was a gift, like artwork from a child or a greeting card from a friend, will they be hurt when they find out I didn't keep it?  This was hard for me, but Marie suggests that the purpose of these items was to show love to you. These items have served their purpose. Thank them and let them go. If there are items that spark joy, find a beautiful way to display them. Don't just shove them back in that box under your bed.

Once I saw the fear and named it, I was free. I started the sorting process over again. This time, when I held a piece of paper I was able to make a quick choice about it. 

• Keep it long term. It is irreplaceable, required by law, or church regulations
• Keep short term.  I need access to it for a set period of time
• Keep in a pending box and set an appointment (with myself) to do the task

When I was finished, I had one long term box, a few short-term folders, and a pending box.  So, what is this pending box I keep mentioning and how does Marie Kondo suggest you use one?  A pending box is a place where you put papers that require you to do some sort of immediate action.  These could be bills to pay, letters you plan to write, tickets you need to buy, and other things you discover in the sorting process. When you find something that requires action, you stand it up vertically in this box. By setting it aside, you can continue sorting without getting distracted by all the things you need to do. 

Unfortunately, I ended up with so much in the pending box that it became my "Box of Shame".  Years of procrastination were staring me in the face. That's part of the reason why I stopped sorting and started researching. My pending box was turning into pending boxes and I was getting completely overwhelmed.  I realized I was putting things in the pending box because I didn't know if I should keep them, not because there was a task associated with them.

Once I did the research to learn more about what the law required I keep, I was able to reduce the number of my pending items to those that fit into one small, pretty box.  I even included the book I am reading in my pending box. Now, in the morning after I teach my online classes, I can take my pending box and a cup of coffee and take time to complete these unfinished tasks and maybe even read a chapter or two. What a great feeling!  

As new papers come into the RV, I immediately ask myself, "Is this a pending item, recycling or shredding?" I have a recycling bin by the door for quick junk mail sorting, a shredder by my couch and my pending box on the counter so I can sort paper quickly. I make time daily to sort through the pending box and handle as many items as I can. Once a bill is paid, I keep it in short term folder until the next bill arrives to confirm payment, then shred it. So far, I am liking this process. I will try and let you know how successful I am at maintaining this orderliness in a few months.

Before you go, I want to clarify that I am combining steps 2 and 3 in this one blog post. Step 2 was BOOKS.  When I sold my condo and moved full-time into the RV I gave away a lot of my books and kept only those that were sentimental gifts, favorites or instructional. (shown here on my bed) When I began the process of Konmari-ing the RV, I realized my daily happiness was dependent on the ease in which I moved around in the RV and packed up things to move to my next camping space. To improve the quality of my life, I needed to find storage space for the things constantly on the floor and counters in my RV.  (I can't keep throwing things in the back seat of the car)

So, I re-evaluated the books I had and why I was keeping them. I realized I had not read most of the books or even looked at them since I sold the condo. Lately, I have been reading digital books from the library on my laptop or iPhone.  After saying "thank you" to my favorites, I packed up the Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and Lucy Montgomery books and mailed them to some of my great-nieces and nephews. I know that they will love them as much as I did. These books deserve to be read, not stored in a closet in my RV.  I've kept a few gift books with inscriptions written in the front, one signed by the author and a few manuals that I use all the time. Deciding to let go of my books has freed up an entire cabinet that now houses teaching supplies for my job with VIPKID. 

So, did it really make a difference? How much paper can one person really have in an RV? Boy, I was surprised! At the end of each day of sorting and shredding, I put everything outside on my picnic table and took a picture. Here is how much I eliminated from my RV after three days of sorting.

I could have saved everything to take a picture of one huge pile so I could really impress you, but I didn't want to have to climb over the pile of papers each morning. Taking things out as soon as I finished each day helped to keep my RV a little less cluttered. It also let me celebrate my success along the way.

Now, I need to let you know that I didn't sort all my books and papers yet. I plan to sort my family history (genealogy reports) and family photo albums as part of the sentimental category.

So, are you making New Year's Resolutions this year to clean-up your home after the holidays? Then consider using Marie Kondo's Konmari method to help you make decisions about the papers you want to let go of and those you want to keep to help you create the life you want to live.