How to Organize Paperwork | Part 7: All the Little Papers

posted by Megan on August 17, 2018 This post may contain affiliate links.

Alright, friends! Today is Part 7 of the How to Organize Paperwork series, and we’re rounding the final corner into the home stretch! Over the past two months, we’ve covered everything from household papers and important documents, to kids’ school papers and craft paper collections. Today, we are diving into all the little papers that remain, specifically Kitchen papers (such as recipes and kitchen inventories), Shopping papers (receipts, coupons, warranties, manuals etc), and Sentimental papers (personal notes, holiday and birthday cards, etc). While many of these papers can be rolled into some of the storage solutions I’ve already shared in previous weeks, I wanted to (quickly) work through each of these categories to give you ideas and storage methods to consider. Let’s get to it!

Pssssttt – Each and every post in this How to Organize Paperwork series builds on the previous one. As such, if you are just joining the series, I strongly suggest you review Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 before diving deep into this post.

This Week We Are Sorting…

This week, we are focusing in on the final three Paper Types (Kitchen Papers, Shopping Papers, and Sentimental Papers)…essentially all the little papers that may be cluttering up drawers and corners around the home.

It should be noted here that I only grouped these three Paper Types together today for the sake of convenience and efficiency (I think we are all ready to move on from paper organization here soon 😉 ) Although I am putting them together in this post, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should work through them all at one time. Depending on your household, each of these Paper Types may be as big of an undertaking as any of the others we’ve already worked through and as such should be dealt with individually. That said, I did leave these three final categories until the end, because…as you will see…several of them can possibly be folded right into the other systems you already have setup! We’ll walk through each Paper Type one at a time to show you what I mean.

NOTE! This week’s post is going to feel like a condensed version of the previous posts in the series. I’m first going to (quickly) walk through what the S-P-A-C-E method should look like for each paper type. I’ll follow up by showing you exactly what we’re using in our own home, and then finish up with a slew of other solutions from around the web for you to consider.

Kitchen Papers

S-P-A-C-E for Kitchen Papers

Like the other papers we’ve worked through, you’re going to use the S-P-A-C-E method to work through your kitchen papers. If you are not yet familiar with my S-P-A-C-E decluttering method, I recommend you first read this post. The following is what this would look like for Kitchen-related papers:

S – Sort – Gather all of the papers that belong in your kitchen. Yes…all of them. This includes recipes, shopping lists, meal plans, freezer and pantry inventories, measurement conversions, etc. Begin to sort them into 3-8 logical and simple sorting categories. I recommend first sorting as follows: Recipes | Inventories | Meal Planning Resources | Other Kitchen Resources
P – Purge – Go through each and every piece of paper and discard anything you no longer want or need. Discard any recipes you never, ever make and have no interest in making, as well as duplicates or recipes that are too difficult to read. Also get rid of any checklists or worksheets you never use.
A – Assess – Figure out how to further refine your initial sorting categories. I recommend breaking them down as follows:
- Recipes – sub-categorize by recipe type (I strongly recommend sorting recipes into the following categories: Poultry, Beef, Pork, Vegetarian, Sides & Salads, and Desserts). Read more about this sorting method here.
- Inventories – sub-categorize by location: pantry, refrigerator, freezer, spice cabinet, etc.
- Meal Planning Resources – sub-categorize by type: recipe lists, meal planning worksheets, grocery list worksheets, etc.
- Other Kitchen Resources – sub-categorize if/as necessary, but this may be a catch-all from the other categories.
C – Contain – Once you have all your recipes and other kitchen papers sorted, purged, and assessed, now decide how best to contain these papers. Binders and magazine files are two obvious and functional solutions for this paper type (more ideas below).
E – Embellish – Embellish whatever system you choose with color coordinating details such as labels, dividers, covers, labels and more!

How We Store our Kitchen Papers

Most of you long-time readers know that I have utilized a comprehensive, color-coded binder system for our recipes and other kitchen resources for YEARS!

In the front of this binder, I have included all of our kitchen inventories, meal planning supplies, and other worksheets.

Behind the Kitchen Resources section are all of our recipes. After working through the S-P-A on each and every recipe, I inserted the keepers into page protectors and loaded them into a binder by protein-type as described above. This approach has truly been a tried-and-true, time-saving method for keeping our recipes organized and accessible. I don’t make a single dinner with pulling this binder off its shelf!

To get the details on assembling an All-In-One Kitchen Binder for aaaallll your kitchen papers, check out this post!

Shopping Papers

S-P-A-C-E for Shopping Papers

The following is what S-P-A-C-E would look like for Shopping-related papers:

S – Sort – Gather up all of the shopping-related papers you’ve got stashed around the house. You likely have already come across many of them during your other paper sorting practices or left them all until now. Either way, pile up every receipt, coupon, promotional mailer, flyer, mailing invoice, etc. Start by sorting these papers into the following categories: Receipts (including packing slips and invoices) | Coupons (including promotions and flyers) | Manuals and Warranties
P – Purge – As you sort into the three piles, trash anything you know you no longer need (receipts and invoices) or will never use (coupons and promotions). Also be sure to:
- Coupons
  - Check for expiration dates and toss anything expired.
  - Toss any coupons you know you will never use.
- Reciepts
  - Check for return deadlines and toss anything past that deadline.
  - Get rid of receipts for any items you know you will never return.
  - Get rid of receipts for any purchases that are documented in an online account or accessible via a credit card scan.
- Manuals and Warranties
  - Ensure you still have the corresponding item in your home. Discard manuals for anything you have gotten rid of.
  - Check to see if manuals are (easily) available online. Consider creating a bookmark folder in your Internet browser or Pinterest board for these online manuals and discard the paper copies.
A – Assess – Figure out how you need to further refine the initial sorting categories. If needed, I recommend breaking them down as follows:
- Coupons – refine by store or coupon category (food, pet, home, hygiene, etc)
- Receipts – refine by store/company
- Manuals and Warranties – refine by type: Kitchen | Small Electronics | Large Electronics | Computers and Devices | Kids and Baby | Tools | Household
C – Contain – Once you have all these shopping papers sorted, purged, and assessed, now decide how best to contain them. Binders, accordion files, file boxes, paper pouches, envelopes, and magazine files are some obvious and functional solutions for this paper type (more ideas below).
E – Embellish – Embellish whatever system you choose with color coordinating details such as labels, dividers, covers, labels and more!

How We Store our Shopping Papers

I will be the first to admit that I am not much of a “couponer.” (If I were, I would absolutely assemble a coupon binder using my Printable Coupon Binder Kit!) While I tend to mostly rely on coupons on my phone, every now and then something comes via mail that I want to keep and use. Instead of assembling a complicated binder or file system, I simply keep a labeled pouch in my purse. This pouch not only gives me a landing place to put coupons (only the ones I’m likely to use) when I come across them, but it also guarantees I have them when I am out shopping.

I use a similar system for receipts. If the receipt is for an item I know I will not return or I can access via an online account, I toss it right away. If there’s even the slightest chance I might return the item AND the receipt is required for the return, it will get immediately placed into the pouch in my purse.

I wish I could say I have a really systematic way for going through these papers once they are tucked away. In reality, I wait until both pouches get too full, and then I sort through them to discard anything expired or no longer needed.

See the tutorial for making these pouches here!

For manuals and warranties, we don’t keep many. During our most recent paper purge, I got rid of almost anything I could find online. Among the few things we did keep were the warranty for our couch fabric and our bed assembly instructions that we for some reason need every.single.time.we.move. What remained fit into a single file folder inside our household files (the file is turquoise because these files belong to the “family.”)

Sentimental Papers

So here we are…at the final Paper Type of them all. There are a few reasons why we are doing sentimental papers last. For one, it’s much quicker and easier to work through all the other paper types without having to slow down and consider sentimental papers as you go. Second, by now you’ve (hopefully) gotten really, really good at deciding what needs to be kept and what can to go. You’re decision-making skills have been refined and are truly in shape, which will allow you to make good, quick decisions about the tough emotional papers that remain.

So here we go…it’s time to pile up all those hand-written notes, birthday cards, holiday cards from friends, programs from graduations and funerals and more. We’re going to work through them just as we have everything else. Grab the tissue box if you need it and take your time. This is your final hurdle to having all your papers conquered…and you can do it!

S-P-A-C-E for Sentimental Papers

The following is what S-P-A-C-E would look like for Sentimental-related papers:

S – Sort – Gather up all of the “sentimental” papers in your home. Hopefully, if you are tackling this Paper Type last, you’ve come across all these papers already and have set them aside. Even if they are all mostly compiled, take the time to dig through shoes boxes, drawers and files to find anything that is part of this Paper Type. If you’re doing your entire household, begin by sorting these papers down into piles for each person. If you are just doing your own sentimental papers, sort down into two broad categories: Letters and Notes | Memories
P – Purge – As you sort, do your best to purge out as much as you can. Just as I suggested with kids’ papers, I recommend only keeping the very, very best of your life/past so that you can easily store and honor it. If you keep everything or keep too much, it will be much more difficult to re-visit and celebrate these memories whenever you wish. I do recommend re-reading and reflecting on as much or as little as you want as you work through it all, but in the end, try to keep only those things that truly “spark joy.”
A – Assess – Figure out how best to further sub-categorize everything that is considered a keeper. At the very least, I suggest sorting your memories into “Letters and Notes” and “Memories,” but your specific papers will tell you if more sub-categories are needed.
C – Contain – Once you have your sentimental papers sorted, purged, and assessed, identify the best solution to store it all. Consider adding these items to systems you already have in place (such as your household files or your children’s file boxes) or creating special “memory boxes” for each family member.
E – Embellish – Embellish whatever system you choose with color coordinating details such as labels, dividers, covers, labels and more!

How We Store our Sentimental Papers

I shared last week that I am not overly sentimental about the papers and items we keep. It’s just how I’m wired. Yes, I certainly kept our children’s hospital bracelets and footprints from their births, but I didn’t keep every card that was sent upon their arrival. There are certain, very special, hand-written cards and letters from friends and family that I have chosen to keep, but most birthday cards, holiday cards and folded-up notes from my schoolgirl days have all been tossed over the years.

The notes, letters, cards and special momentos that we have each chosen to keep are stored in our household files. I have my “special” items broken down to “Letters and Notes,” “Testimonials” (notes and cards from clients) and “Memories” (like our wedding program).

Greg has similar files, as do the boys. Right now, the boys have folders for “Special Letters” (like cards from their Godparents on their baptism) and Fun Awards (like the hair from their first haircut stapled to a certificate)…

…and as I showed you last week, most of their memories/photos/art are stored in personal school file boxes:

HOW TO ORGANIZE PAPERWORK BLOG SERIES

I realize this post was a doozy – and quite the final step at the end of a veeeerryyy long process of sorting and purging all the paper in our home. While I did condense everything down here, I am sensitive that these final few Paper Types might be the hardest for some of you (especially that final Sentimental Papers category!). Just like all the other Paper Types we’ve worked through until now, take your time, do it right, and explore all the various options shared above in order to truly get these final few little papers in check.

We’re not quite done with paper organization yet, my friends! Because even though we’ve now worked through all the paper currently in your home, we haven’t yet talked about how to deal with any new paper that comes through your door! Next week, I’ll be taking Tuesday off (for one last summer hurrah with my boys!), but I’ll be back on Friday to discuss setting up a household paper Inbox system so you never become overwhelmed with your papers again!

See You Soon!
Megan

How to Organize Paperwork | Part 7: All the Little Papers

This Week We Are Sorting…