Decluttering A Ridiculous Amount of Papers

After a brief intermission from KZbin, I'm trying to get back on an upload schedule and so I present to you my paper declutter.
Be sure to watch until the end so you can see the time capsule I found in one of the files I cleaned out. You'll also get to see my dog. Yup, I'll totally use my dog to help promote my vids cuz I have no shame.
Filling out the description box is hard.
Enjoy!

[@OK-wb1dy]

I don’t feel so lonely NOW that I know someone else has 25 years of paper clutter. I think about it ALL the time. So ALL the time that I stop enjoying myself.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

You are definitely not alone! When I realized we had papers that dated back to the 90s, I knew it was worth mentioning because there HAD to be others out there who could relate.

[@LightFigure888]

The idea of going through the papers annually. This is a revelation to me too. It doesn’t really matter which month of the year. Great video.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Same! I don't know why routine maintenance on not just papers, but with most things in my daily life, hasn't occurred to me before. I didn't get to my annual paper declutter until September, but I did it and it's so empowering to know that I'm taking small steps to avoid a huge paper declutter later on.

[@asavannah7439]

I just threw papers away from 17 years ago 😵‍💫🥴 My decluttering was inspired by The Minimal Mom. Now your video was recommended to me

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I love the Minimal Mom! She explains things so well and her reasons for decluttering certain things really help me feel more comfortable about decluttering my own things. Congratulations on clearing out your papers. Good job!

[@chris...9497]

I am currently FINALLY going through papers I have stored for YEARS in rented storage, moved several states south, taken from East Coast to West Coast then back again then back again AGAIN, then through 3 more residences before sitting untouched while self-isolating through 2+ years of pandemic IN THE SAME ROOM. Yes; this has been growing and been added to since the last century. So am I using the Marie Kondo method? NO. Before Marie Kondo was even an adult, I had planned to pull it all out and sort through it in one go...but never did. Over the years I could never get myself to start. The closest I came to starting was buying 3 large bins to sort into. The plan was to sort into 3 categories: -Essential Originals: Certified & official documents, like birth certificates, marriage licenses, car titles, education/training certifications, etc; also anything that should go into a Memory Box, like children's drawings, awards, etc. Those would be filed. -Necessary Data: Documents containing data I may need to retrieve at a later point. Those would be scanned and saved on an exterior hard drive and replicated on a backup hard drive (I lost data on an exterior hard drive that failed and was professionally unrecoverable). If the data can be obtained digitally, then scanning won't be required, just downloading. After scanning/downloading, the sensitive data would be destroyed through shredding and recycling. -Sensitive Useless: Unnecessary documents containing sensitive info. Basically, anything with identifying info on it or financial info, etc. Those would be shredded and recycled. -Straight trash would go directly to recycling. Very ambitious. TOO ambitious. The pile was too high, the work daunting, and I could never gird my loins well enough to dig into it. I currently live in a studio apartment which is bisected by what I call my "Box Canyon"; you have to pass through a 6ft high stack of bins & boxes on the right and a 4ft stack on the left to pass from the apartment entrance & kitchen into the combination living room & bedroom. I spent all pandemic staring at this monster as it mocked me and sapped my will to wrestle it down. So? Well, Marie Kondo (and me, too) were wrong about how to kill a monster pile this big. I am finding it works better to take it in bites. They say the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time; it's the relentlessness that takes it down and eliminates it. Well, I am finding progress pulling out a box or a bag or a portion of a bin at a time and going through it. I'm seeing floor. I'm seeing heights shorten. I'm making my way through. So, is Marie Kondo wrong about pulling the entire problem out all at once to confront and resolve it in one go? Yeah. At least as far as paperwork goes. The One-Bite-At-A-Time method is working for me. I may not do it every day, but as long as I do it at least once a week, the piles will disappear.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Thank you for your comment Chris. You are very correct in the thought of attacking the pile in small, manageable pieces. It's great to have a plan that works best for you. In the end, if it doesn't work for you, you're not going to be all that motivated to do it (at least I'm not). Best of luck to you on processing all the papers. You've got this!

[@pdxoregon1]

Now THIS is a REAL paper decluttering video!!!!!

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

This declutter was no joke! Thank you so much for watching!

[@GoADHDGo]

“Don’t judge me, Janet.” needs to be on a t-shirt.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Can you say “merch”? 🤣

[@GoADHDGo]

@@andrea.adhdhouse I can! “Merch.” See! Actually, I’ve been doing Merch stuff online for a long time… like, since 2009.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

@@GoADHDGo that’s awesome! I’m still a few videos/subscribers away from merch but at least a I know what my first item will be. Thank you!

[@choosetoshine2610]

Totally! Tee shirt sounds good to me! 🤗

[@Lglandorf6]

I'm so glad to hear that there is someone else who doesn't agree with the Marie Kondo method. If I pull everything out, I will get overwhelmed (and bored) and it will take forever to get back to it. Case in point: we had the whole interior of our house painted in August. I am still putting away things that were thrown in closets that weren't going to be painted. So many closets that were decently organized are now overwhelmed with clutter that I just didn't know what to do with and had to shove at the last minute. I work part-time so I have plenty of time to go through it but it is so overwhelming and it is not getting done in any great hurry.

[@thatswhatisaid8908]

Isn't it amazing? I thought if i worked part-time, i would be able to have a perfectly decluttered, organised and clean house, a tidy oroductive and pretty garden and time left to discover hobbies. Lol.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

In some cases, it makes sense and easier work to leave things where they are - especially if they’re already in an ideal location and declutter as time permits. In other cases, I have no choice but to gather everything thing up in one spot because that variety of stuff is squirreled away all over the house and I really need to see it all in one place before I can do a serious declutter on it. I have a couple of categories that need that kind of work and I’m not looking forward to it 😬

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

@@thatswhatisaid8908 I’m a stay at home mom and I can’t seem to find the time to get to all the things either 😂

[@highlandjournalart654]

That’s so true, I had to empty the loft (attic) which is our only storage place, for insulation 6 weeks ago. It’s only just being sorted now..

[@tacofarmstudios154]

I just found you and I love it! I’m doing all the same purging and you are local to me! Keep posting because it’s very motivating to turn on while I’m going through my stuff. 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

That’s awesome! I still have loads of stuff to declutter, so stay tuned! Thank you!

[@parkerrose3590]

Just found you channel! Yay! I've a long history of paper clutter anxiety. My late husband, known for hoarding would not let me throw anything away. After he passed away I went threw boxes and boxes of paper. Some from the 1970's!! Yes we were married 50 years. Now I am 95% organized. I can live with it. I feel liked I betrayed him sometimes, but I just could not live like that anymore.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I'm so sorry for you loss. You've been through a lot and I'm happy for you finding a system that works for you. Good job!

[@parkerrose3590]

@@andrea.adhdhouse Thank you so much! I also am a Breast Cancer survivor. I feel blessed I can continue my life.

[@choosetoshine2610]

Excellent content and hilarious delivery! New subscriber. ❤️ 🥰🤗

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Thank you and welcome! I'm glad you're here!

[@jillianguilford5191]

This is great for body doubling. I dread going through papers.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

What a great idea Jillian!

[@porknbeans90]

I just found your channel and just subscribed..Im an office supply nerd, and have a HARD time getting rid of papers. I just found lots of old stuff that is already in the trash can outside 🙌 I was wondering how to stay on top of all this, and your suggestion for annual maintenance is pure gold, thank you! 😀 👍

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Welcome Anna! Good job on your own paper declutter! The best way I've found to stay on top of papers is regular maintenance. I'm not perfect at this, but generally, I sort the mail right away by discarding junk, putting my husband's mail in his mail sorter and put my mail near my planner. Next is to go through the mail and any other papers at least once a week. I tend to plan on Sundays or Mondays so I make sure I have my papers handy at that time too. Then I set things in piles: one for action - anything that I need to respond to or follow up on; one for papers that should be saved/filed and one for recycling. The piles help organize things by task and it makes the papers less intimidating and more manageable. I hope this helps. Thank you!

[@porknbeans90]

@@andrea.adhdhouse it sure does! Thanks for the tips and the welcome 👍😁

[@Jaxsantos1]

Thank you for this video! It really inspired me to continue to tackle the paper clutter in my home!

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I’m so glad you found this helpful. I know you can conquer your papers too! You’ve got this!

[@karenrich9092]

In 2018, after my husband's passing, my daughter was using his computer and said, "I can't close the filing cabinet." My files were also stuffed. Enter Freedom Filer. Setting up the system took time and paying for the labels took money, but this was an excellent investment. I took 12 bags of shredded material out of the cabinets such as info on cars we no longer owned and tax returns from 25 years ago. Ten years is my limit. If it's older than that and it's not sentimental, out it goes.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I’m so sorry for your loss. That must have been a very difficult time for you. I haven’t heard of Freedom Filer so I’ll have to look into it. Thank you for sharing!

[@karenrich9092]

@@andrea.adhdhouse Go to www.freedomfiler.com/ and you'll find out about this system. It's a great system and even if you "fall off the wagon" it's easy to get on again.

[@ursulahansen7478]

I am going through so many papers at a time. I would get soooo overwhelmed with all of that at once. Routine maintenance is so important. I am working on.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I agree! Routine maintenance is much easier that dealing with everything at once. I’m hoping that I will never have to deal with this many papers again!

[@karenstairs8273]

I have found that if I keep it out of sight, I worked on it less. When it was in my face, I worked harder

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I find this to be the case with certain things too - if I tuck it away and don't see it, I won't remember to do it. Since the file cabinet was usually in the garage instead of in the house, I didn't think about it. I'm finding that each declutter needs to be handled differently. Not EVERYTHING needs to be pulled out of it's current home and into a pile in the middle of the room. I clearly didn't approach it that way, but want to mention when I could have done it differently.

[@karenrichey6074]

You should make sure that Social security has recorded the right numbers for earnings before you discard old taxes.

[@sherylanderson8805]

And then you end up saving all of the old taxes because you have to go through all those details at a later date. And never get them tossed out! It's a terrible cycle. XD

[@mayaurbano-aly2768]

I enjoyed your video a lot. It gave me the motivation to get rid off all that paper I have in our file cabinets that need to go. No need to keep records of bills paid in 2018 😂

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

It’s amazing how easily unnecessary papers pile up, isn’t it? Thank you so much for stopping by!

[@majatodorovic8683]

Light make up looks sooo good on you! 🥰

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Awww, thank you. That made my day.

[@ginamcdonald7854]

I had several large plastic totes of miscellaneous papers. Kept 8 years of tax returns, and threw away/shredded the rest! Now I shred as soon as stuff I don’t need comes in the house , or at least weekly!!!!

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

That’s awesome Gina! Sometimes a big purge is great motivation to maintain the mess more frequently.

[@marietollett8323]

Thank you for sharing your experience with paper clutter. I have several decades I'm currently processing. My spouse purchased a scanner that has been helpful for keeping important/useful items. Would you mind sharing how long it took you to go through everything once you started taking action? Thanks again! 🙂

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Thanks for your question Marie. I didn’t keep careful track of the time invested but here is a guesstimate: I started on a Friday and spent about 3-4 hours going through papers. I’d say I invested another couple of hours on Saturday and another hour or two on Sunday filing the papers I kept. I was able to recycle most of the papers because they didn’t contain sensitive information. Depending on how many papers contain sensitive information, it’s safe to say you’ll probably need another couple of hours shredding or redacting papers. My husband graciously took care of the shredding by taking the papers to work and feeding them to the industrial strength shredder there. I hope this helps. Best of luck to you on your paper declutter - you’ve got this!

[@LightFigure888]

Me watching your video. That I already watched & liked a year ago, while surrounded by papers that I am part-way through decluttering. Don’t judge me either 😂

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Getting it done in your own timing is still getting it done. I’m in no position to judge - trust me! Good job on your progress!

[@LightFigure888]

@@andrea.adhdhouse I was reassured there is no magical way to do the decluttering of papers 😂 Just piece by piece 😀I didn’t get it all out at once. I learnt from your insight 😀 there is still more for me to do in boxes, but I went to bed with a clear space, which is awesome

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

@@LightFigure888 aww 🥰 I’m glad you found helpful info and that you’re making great progress. Yay!

[@lakendrawilliams377]

Thank you for this video. I am motivate to go through my papers.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

That’s awesome! I know you can do it. You’ve got this!

[@pauladuncanadams1750]

Have Trump come in and pack your paperwork up for you. Problem solved! 😉

[@bonnieinthespirit6373]

That was so cute! Full of information. I’ve dumped 3 bags of paper, already. Taxes- I’ve been audited n approved now 2013-2020. That makes sense 7 years. Kool! So I can trash these papers?! ??? Mtg . Papers. Bank still questions me - in prepaid at the monthly payment. They re checked there entry so they say. Should I try to prove my point? Or accept there errors, of judgement. They lost to certified. Bank checks . To date they corrected. Except I’ve yet to hear them say why did you pay? And you didn’t take the don’t pay this month? Cause! The bank expects full payment or they charge interest n late fees . Oh they even took out insurance on my account without my knowing While I Had cover age!

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Thank you! With tax forms, it’s recommended we keep them for 7 years from the date of filing. If anything was audited or reviewed, it’s probably best to double check with someone like a CPA to make sure you’re safe to purge old tax returns. I’m not an expert, so I don’t want to give you bad information. As for bank statements, its always good to make sure your receipts and statements match. If there are charges that shouldn’t be there, the bank should be made aware so they can correct the problem. Hope this helps.

[@SN-mx1rb]

Amazing how easy you can throw stuff away having adhd. So cool!!

[@SN-mx1rb]

Greetings from Germany

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I'm weird! I have ADHD but enjoy decluttering. In all fairness, this video focused on papers - most of which had no sentimental or emotional attachment. There are some categories where items were difficult to part with, collections of things that I had to sort through multiple times before I felt "done".

[@lindagower8988]

Do you bag & dump or shred all you are throwing away?

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I recycled most papers and shredded anything with sensitive information on it. Luckily, my husband has a big paper shredder at his office, so I got to delegate that task 😁

[@My_Secret_ArtSketchbook]

Well after opening this wardrobe after 2 years- we managed to get rid of 50% of papers went in the recycling bin n the rest was shredded then burnt- oh my felt much better.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Good job! Doing the task is not always fun, but getting it done feels amazing!

[@maggiea6766]

Hope you show the mess on the floor where you are tossing stuff lol

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

I actually put a small recycling bin next to me to make for easier clean up. I guess I’m finally learning to work smarter on this stuff. I did fill the large recycling bin that goes to the curb for pick up. I knew it was a lot but I didn’t know it was THAT much!

[@maggiea6766]

@@andrea.adhdhouse what a good idea. I toss them on the floor lol. And them have that mess to clean up

[@Cat-ik1wo]

Just seeing it scares me

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Even scarier in person. Yikes!

[@justtere]

Did you just recycle all your papers or shred them? When I lived in Florida, I burned them in my fireplace, now that I live in Massachusetts, no fireplace. Some things I don’t want people to see (legal papers my my deceased husband fighting for custody of his deceased son for example-last paper filed was in 1995!) but those donʼt need to be seen. They are currently in two four inch binders. In MY ADHDness, I have left them because I donʼt know what to do with them. My office shredder would burn out about the time I do. Ideas, anyone?

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Anything that had sensitive information on it was shredded. My husband has an industrial strength shredder at work, so I was able to delegate. Here are alternatives if you don’t have access to a shredder: check in with your local municipalities to see if they ever host shredding events in your area. They basically do all the work for you at little to no charge. Option 2 is FedEx Office - they used to be Kinkos but they have shredding services. I’m not sure of the cost. Option 3 is a security stamp that obscures your private info making it safer to recycle. If I had the ability to share a picture, I would. If you’re not familiar with them, you can search “stamp roller for privacy protection“ in Google or Amazon and you’ll see plenty of options. I hope this helps!

[@kathyhill9251]

@@andrea.adhdhouse Security stamp rollers don't last very long

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

@@kathyhill9251 It sounds like those might be better for regular maintenance rather than a full house purge. Thanks for the info!

[@danikeebler1662]

Not only were the paperwork on thentable, but they are vulnerable business papers, not a good feeling to have your dirty laundry on the table.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

No, no it’s not! Yikes!

[@cindyhenry1410]

ARIES!! 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Woo hoo! Go Aries!

[@SageGypsy]

If it doesn’t matter because everything is online or can easily be replaced with a phone call, why not just dump everything in the shredder? That would save a lot of time, Yes?

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Yes, I suppose it would have 😳. What I meant was I tried to discard anything that could be replaced online or with a phone call: user manuals, account information or menus, among other items. Sorry for the confusion.

[@philomenamcquillan8851]

I don’t find watching you at all helpful. Where is the advice … plllleeeaaassseee!

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Thank you for your feedback. I’m always looking for ways to improve video content. What advice would have made this video more helpful? Thank you!

[@mariacastillo3090]

New subscriber. Love the intro 😂😂😂. Thank you for sharing your ideas.

[@andrea.adhdhouse]

Thank you!