KonMari® Category Three ~ Papers
Category three of the KonMari Method® is papers. This includes but is not limited to: course materials; bank statements; greeting cards (these can also be tackled within the sentimental items category); business cards; magazine clipping; other paper documents.
Locate your papers
Another letter comes into your home, what do you do with it? 'A single sheet of paper takes up almost no room, which makes it very easy to accumulate far too many before you realize it.' (Spark Joy, pg. 131). The first step in organising your papers is to gather all the papers in your home for which you're personally responsible and bring them to one location.
Create paper subcategories
Katrina can support you in creating subcategories to make sorting your papers an easier process. You will go through each paper item, one at a time, and decide whether or not you need to keep it. With Katrina's guidance, you can create a filing system for your papers that works for your current lifestyle to make life administration more manageable. Katrina also has experience in supporting local businesses in their paper organisation and creating a filing system that works best for the nature of the business.
If you are a parent and have a lot of artwork from your children, Katrina can also advise you on the best way to store these items once you have completed your spark joy checks. However if you find the process too difficult to tackle at this time, you can leave them until we start category five, which is organising your sentimental items.
Storing papers
Papers can be stored into three main categories:
1. 'Pending' ~ papers that need to be dealt with within the next few weeks. This often includes bills, school letters, party invitations, wedding rsvps etc.
2. 'Short term keep' ~ this category normally contains paper items which need to be dealt with within the next few months.
3. 'Long term keep' ~ these papers need to be kept forever or for a specified amount of time and include bank statements, manuals, birth certificates and marriage certificates.
This system of three locations for your papers can help you follow the 'don't put it down, put it away' rule. Whenever any document or paper comes into your home, this filing system can help you reduce the build up of paper clutter over time. An effective paper filing system is unique to each individual. With Katrina you can work towards creating a system which is right for you.
