I hear all the hype about living in a paper-less, earth-friendly world, but I find that I have an endless paper trail that seems to follow me everywhere I go. It’s in the kitchen, on my nightstand, in the kids’ rooms, and even in my car.

It’s amazing how much I try to stay on it, yet it continues to pile up. I figure it’s an inevitable part of life that we all must face and filter through. These mysterious paper piles aren’t really all that mysterious, but instead contain a mix of mail, must-dos and treasured papers marking milestones in the lives of my children.

Even in the green world in which we live we’re still far from a paperless system, and every mom yearns for a day when the paper monster will be tamed. But this paper trail is really just the unfortunate reality of having kids in school, keeping up with a busy life, and managing a household.

 While it’s clearly not a perfect system in our home, we’ve tried to tame the beast by taking a few rather painless steps to slay the monster.

 1.       Don’t feed the beast. When I get the mail every day I head straight to the trash can or recycling bin to get rid of the non-essential papers. Even being on the anti-junk mail lists we still get a remarkable amount of junk mail that goes straight to the trash or the shredder. Everyone should own a shredder and use it regularly.

 2.       Don’t get burned by the dragon’s fire. I bought a handy filing box in faux leather to hold all of my bills and I also use it as my temporary filing system. Bills and important papers are filed into my handy filer. I have files for recipes I want to try–one for each of my kids to hold the school papers I want to hold on to, medical insurance problems to be dealt with, etc. I try to have folders for things that need a home but aren’t ready to be tossed or put in “dry” storage either. For example, when you make a phone call on a problem and even though the customer service rep says to you, “This should be fixed in the next month,” it’s still a good idea to keep the paperwork handy to double check in a month.

3.      Don’t let the beast eat the masterpiece. I pile up my kids favorite masterpieces from school and their proudest accomplishments all year in a basket on a high bookshelf. Within the first week of summer break we go through the big pile and save whatever will fit in the box that we label for the year and put in “dry” storage in the garage. I let them make the call on what stays and what goes, but they can’t save more than what we have room for. Sometimes we take a photo with the posterboard to preserve the memory of the project instead of keeping the huge momento as a memorial. The kids actually love the process of going through their stuff and saying goodbye to another year of school while reminiscing in the good times they’ve had. It’s a good way to cap off a school year with a trip down memory lane.

 Note: Now that you’ve got your paper problem straightened up. Check out next week’s post on cleaning up your office.

Question: What tips can you offer to help win the war against The Paper Giant?