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Solve the paper pile up with these organizing tips

Posted at 3:02 PM, Jan 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-29 17:02:17-05

Professional organizer Marla Dee tackles her most common question - how do I deal with all of the paper piles?

Do you feel like you're drowning in a sea of paper?

iRAFT to the Rescue:
 Incoming - Set up a container in a specific location in the home or office to
capture the incoming. Then drop ALL your incoming paper here throughout the
week. It is just like the inbox for your email or your laundry hamper for your
dirty laundry. Put it all in one place.
 Sort into RAFT: the secret to success is to just sort first. This needs to be done
once a week. Just like you would sort the dirty laundry into whites, darks and
delicates - sort pile of paper into four piles:
o Read - make a pile of the papers or items you just need to read
o Action - this pile is the papers you still need to take an action on like
paying the bills or running errands. You need a separate container and
location for your action items. Then schedule 30 minutes to do the
actions items that need to be done that week. This way everything gets
taken care of.
o File - many items just need to get filed like your receipts or bank
statements. Get the brilliant systems FreedomFiler! This is an all-
encompassing, self-purging, low maintenance filing system. Find out
more on http://www.clearsimple.com/iraft/
o Toss - have a shredder and recycle container in your space so you can
easily take care of this pile when you are done.

SPECIAL LIVE WORKSHOP - On Saturday, February 10, 9-1, Marla is teaching a LIVE
workshop on iRAFT and FreedomFiler. You will be set free of the paper pain and go
home ready to set up your systems! Sign up at http://www.clearsimple.com/product/iraft-
workshop/ . Limited to 9 students!

For more great organizing tips, go here.