I am about to try to tackle a horrendous roomful of unsorted paperwork and am quaking...

[ipanemagirl]

any encouragement pathetically gratefully received.

I'm a terrible hoarder, have no system, frightened of it ... etc.......

send me any spare cojones..... I need some!!

Set a timer to 15min at a time, don't worry about how long it's going to take you. Good luck, I had 6 years worth of bank statements to sort at one point.

thank you! I need to try to switch this computer off too don't I????!!!!!!

clear a table/floor area

pick up a pile of papers

put in piles - bank, bills, pension, credit cards, mobile, etc etc etc

have bin bag at the ready for stuff that needs shredding and binning

can you leave the room alone and just shut the door? then you can go back to it as and when, just grab a pile and sort them

eventually you will be left with piles all sorted, then you file them away neatly

THEN all incoming paperwork is opened, actioned and filed weekly, then you don't have a build up again

thank you thank you! I can't shut the door unfortunately but I'm going to close mumsnet now and myspace and my email and all! and GET ON!!

what should I do with old receipts? supermarket ones etc?

Shred? That will take for ever! Recycle?

I don't shred receipts would would shred bank statements and so on

Piles:

keep for ever (birth certs, insurance info, house stuff and so no

keep for X years then bin
(I keep bank statements for 3 years, any tax stuff is I think 7 years?)

recycling

shredding (anything with bank info, other personal data on)