Even if you don’t work at home, you’ve got a home office. After all, you pay bills, organize insurance paperwork, tax returns and many other jobs that have paperwork associated with them. Since we all have paperwork to deal with in our day-to-day lives, it pays to take time to set up an organizational system to keep those important papers exactly where they should be. Less paperwork clutter makes for a more organized, stress-free home.

Here’s a simple system to help you organize paperwork at home:

Gather Everything

The first step in a radical organization is going to require collecting every bit of paperwork you have. Have no mercy with this step. Get every piece of paper and get them all into one spot, even if it’s on the living room floor.

Sort it out

The next step is going to be sorting through what you have collected. You may want to get some trays to organize everything logically. Sort through and make piles for : bills, pay stubs, insurance, tax, junk mail, catalogs, and any other major category you can think of. Don’t dwell on any one piece of paper, just put it in the general pile where it belongs.

Trash the Junk

If you have junk mail, receipts from 1999 or any paperwork that is not relevant or useful – trash it. You should shred anything that has your personal information on it before you put it out with the trash. Get rid of anything non-essential.

File the Rest

You have all of your other paperwork in relevant piles, now it’s time to file it away. Archival tax, financial and medical records should be kept in 3 hole binders for future reference. Punch holes in these papers and put them in logically named binders. Put these binders in a bottom shelf, or up on the top shelf of a closet. Just keep them somewhere that you will remember.

If you prefer filing cabinets, make a tab for each year’s paperwork and file it accordingly. Have major sections for personal, medical, insurance, tax and bank records. You may want to put several month’s worth into individual folders to stay more organized as you do this. Keep everything in its place and put everything away, no matter how long it takes.

Keep it up

Now that you have everything in a logical place, keep up the good work. Have an in and out tray on your desk or table. Make it a daily routine to take 5 minutes to go through the stacks that pile up so quickly and put them in the right file. The real key to ongoing organization is developing the habit to do it. So, stay with it and make it a long term goal to stay organized for good.