Is it just me or does anyone else have a pile of paperwork on the kitchen surfaces?

I have even implimented an "in/out tray" and there is still paper breeding in my kitchen.

I go through it and recycle a lot, shred a lot but more arrives !

If you don't have a rainforest in your kitchen how do you deal with it?

What are your "keep tidy" systems?

Snap.

I have two growing piles of 'must attend to' papers in my kitchen. However hard I try they mount up behind the breadbin and behind the utensil jar. I sort them when the pressure of the paper is so great that the bread bin starts to slide off the work surface :D

Unless I deal with each letter as it comes then I have come to the conclusion that these 'piles' are inevitable and have just learnt to live with them. The up-side is that I know exactly where to look for a particular item rather than having papers strewn about the place.

You usually can find my pile of ever growing paperwork on the dining table. I'm going to relocate this pile to the paper recycle bag and be done with it. Besides, I deal with almost everything online so there's no need for all this unnecessary paperwork.

I bought an incinirator bin & all the junk & statements get burnt,it is safer than shredding & putting in a bin bag.It cost £20 from B&Q.

We have one of those piles too.. every so often it gets too big and explodes so I stuff them all into the exploding drawer in the kitchen and when that explodes I sort of figure that anything thats been in there for 6 months+ can be shredded and disposed of accordingly and the cycle repeats through out the year

I'm feeling much better about my life since I read your posts.

Hurrah........I am not alone.

I must admit to something else though........

My exploding drawer is full of batteries, misc. keys, light bulbs, missing parts to kids toys, pens, etc etc

So no room for paper there.

We have a drawer just like that, a dining table full of 'attend to' paperwork and a hall table which always has a mini stack of paperwork for the 'blue bin':D

I dont have an in-tray...i have an in-room...

I used to keep a roomful of old grass cuttings, and bottled urine, but had to throw all that out to make way for the vast quantities of bank statements and electrickery bills etc. Where do they all come from??

One day ill get around to sorting it all out....november 5th maybe...



edd

The stacking method of dealing with paperwork is by far and away the best. I have several piles floating about, that are usually seeded by opened mail, and are then stacked to a height of 10-15 cm before a new stack has usually started. Stacks are merged and spliced and sorted as required. What generally happens is that the most used stuff stays at the top and the slag sinks to the bottom.

Using this method is very efficient, because no time is spent sorting, and finding things is pretty easy. The less often you require something the more time you can invest in finding it. No need to spend valuable time organising stuff that doesn't need it, i.e almost all paperwork, bills statements etc.

Originally posted by tosh13
I bought an incinirator bin & all the junk & statements get burnt,it is safer than shredding & putting in a bin bag.It cost £20 from B&Q.

God, imagine if we all burnt all our excess paperwork and junk mail....

HA ha , last night I found something out.

My best friend , who is a "monica" (friends) admitted to me that she has an exploding drawer too.

Now believe me..........if SHE has one then everyone does!!

Her house is like an art gallery, and very minimal. She is the most tidy and clean person I have ever met in my life.

The drawer is now breaking!!!!!

HELP

and I now have 3 trays in the kitchen (all full)

Bonny,

Take a bin bag, throw papers in, label bag with date, move bag to garage.

Over teh next few weeks sit down every evening or at teh most each weekend and process each paper you receive in the post and deal with by :

Dealing with it then and there.
Binning it.
If you need further time / information write a postit with a list of what you need and when you will return to finish the job. File this one. Also write an entry in your diary or To Do list for the date in question.

If you haven't accessed anything in the bag in the garage after 6 months (and assuming the contents do NOT include tax papers or bank statements which SHOULD be filed, of course) then burn the bag.

After 6 months anyone wanting money will have been after you again, etc.

Just a thought.

Joe

My kitchen never has any unwanted rubbish or paper work, thats what i pay the maids for :rolleyes: .

On the maids day off (Normally Boxing day) I let my butler sort it out.

But in the real world, like you say, if it builds up, it is a right nightmare.

Allocate one day every fortnight to sort out paperwork, and buy some proper files, EG for bills, and car stuff.

By the time you have shredded all the old rubbish, you should have space to keep your new files.

Recently I was back in the U.K. for about a year , just over , and I estimate that I received about 500 "brown " envelopes from official bodies----that's not to mention junk mail.
I remember it being said that computers would produce the " paper-less "society !! Some hopes !