Paper clutter

[itshappenedagain]

How do others keep on top of this. I've just bagged up 10 shredding sack full of paperwork clutter. And on top of that I'd spent an hour a night for months shredding some in my own shredder.
So with a clear start how do I never let it happen again? I've always been good at keeping s file of the important stuff but need a better in and out system. Any ideas?

I have no idea. My whole staircase is littered with letters. I'd love to know the answer. I try to get things to be paperless but DP likes to get the letters so he can leave them all over the house as he prefers things in hard copy.

Opt for paperless where possible (eg bank statements, utility bills) then you just print a copy from email if you need it.
Once a year (I usually go for Xmas holidays with a good film on) go through and shred the last year’s papers that you don’t need anymore, go through receipts/guarantees file and chuck any for appliances etc you’ve got rid of over the year.
Have some kind of filing cabinet and use it! We used to have a two drawer one which was plenty.
It’s just a case of being on top of it, as post comes in open it and put envelopes/junk straight into the recycling, file what you need to keep.
I have a big calendar on the wall so any letters I need (hospital apps or school trip letters) get put in the pocket of this after I write the dates on the calendar. Then we know where they are (in theory!)
I think the key is not letting stuff in the house to start with, so if you get catalogues etc go through your emails and unsubscribe from things you don’t need to get post from.

I take a picture of the letter on my phone with Scanbot and automatically upload it to Evernote. Then I recycle the letter - I do it as I open the post. You can search the full text of the letter and print it out if you need to, which is a lot easier than filing ime. HMRC etc accept these records.

scanbot.io/en/index.html
evernote.com/
www.gov.uk/keeping-your-pay-tax-records