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The holiday season always seems to come with its stresses – staying on budget, planning travels, baking, and cleaning. Good grief, the cleaning!
If you normally host, the overwhelming feeling of prepping for family and friends to celebrate in your home is all too familiar. However, most chaos tends to come from the relentless and never-ending task of cleaning up or simply hiding the clutter.
Paper has a knack for piling up around this time of year. The junk mail hits harder than ever, schools send home an influx of holiday arts and crafts, and gift bags and wrap seem to be everywhere. So, how do you combat the clutter it inevitably creates?
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1. Fight the good fight as it happens.
It’s easier said than done, but the first step in the battle against the piles of paper is to deal with it as it comes in. Undoubtedly, like us all, you already have old stacks of papers that need to be dealt with. In an effort to prevent those piles from increasing, keep what needs to be kept and toss what needs to be tossed (but do so with care).
2. Shred your “toss” pile.
It’s incredibly important to remember that anything with your name on it shouldn’t be simply tossed into the trash. Instead, you should be shredding anything that has even a snippet of your personal information. After all, identity thieves don’t need much to ruin your holiday.
3. Keep things organized.
Don’t just make a “toss” pile on the counter or in the corner. For one, it will just create another pile that you will need to take care of later. Instead, grab a cardboard box or an old grocery bag and fill it with all those papers that need to be shred. Now, you not only are dealing with all the paper, but you have it organized and ready to be taken care of.
4. Keep it up!
Don’t just deal with all that paper before and during the holiday. We know, you want to relax, it’s been a busy time. However, if you keep up these new habits of dealing with unwanted or no longer useful papers, you will be setting yourself up for success next year. (Sounds like a New Year’s resolution to us!)
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