One of the reasons we have clutter is because of the emotional attachments we have to some of our possessions. Some of us are still holding onto the rock our child picked up off the ground and gave us as a “present.” Here are some great solutions to emotional attachment clutter from Womansday magazine:

Think Big – When you’re tempted to keep everything your child brings home, try this visualization exercise – Imagine how the volume of stuff will grow until your child is 18. After picturing the mountain of “child craft” you will be less tempted to save everything and save only the truly worthy.

Scan it – Use a scanner to create digital files of paper ephemera, like letters; toss originals. For bulky items, take digital snapshots and compile into a photobook at blurb.com

Re-purpose favorites - One woman hung onto a beloved maternity dress for 13 years. (Erma Bombeck says if you don’t save at least one box baby clothes you will immediately become pregnant no matter how old you are. I’m sure the same goes for maternity clothes) An organizer suggested the woman frame a swatch of fabric and a few other keepsakes in a shadow box.

I have been saving all my kids t-shirts from activities (camp, band etc.) and plan to have a quilt made by someone other than me (since I don’t sew well) for each of them. You can also make this memory quilt with baby clothes, college sweatshirts etc. The online crafts store Ticche & Bee has a kit you can order if you want to try this yourself (kits run $35.00 and up). Ticche and Bee will also do the sewing for you for an additional cost.

See our sister site Fasthowto.com and see our post on How to File Paperwork Faster

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Here is a very easy method to use when sorting through your daily mail. This method comes from the book Organizing for Dummies by Eileen Roth and Elizabeth Miles. They call it R-A-P-I-D which stands for read, attend, pay, important and dump. Here is how you do it:

Read: Anything that you need to read goes in this stack. These are usually magazines, newsletters and catalogs you are actually interested in.

Attend: Notices and invitations for seminars, workshops, meetings, performances, parties and so on go in to attend stack.

Pay: If somebody wants you to pay for something, put in the to pay pile. Window envelopes are an easy cue. If it looks like a credit card offer your don’t want, Organizing for Dummies suggests ripping through the envelope and tossing. If you routinely shred all documents that are sensitive you may want to have an additional to shred stack. The good thing is you save time here because you don’t even bother opening the envelope.

Important: Presume important until proven innocents, and put all unknown mail into this stack.

Dump: If you know right away you won’t read it or need it, do not open the envelope. Do dump that piece of mail into a trash can or paper recycling bin.

These are just you’re preliminary sorting steps. We’ll post again with more details on what to do once you have sorted your mail.

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Remember when we were going to have a paper-less society? Well, there is still a great deal of paper floating around and we still have to deal with it. I came across one organizing system called “Taming the Paper Tiger.” I think that what it was called. So here are some ways put your paper tiger on a diet and tame him too.

Reduce the amount of paper flowing into your home

- Stop junk mail from coming by writing to this address:

Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-900

- Check your magazine subscriptions and make sure you are only subscribing to ones you read on a regular basis. You will save time and money if you eliminate magazines you don’t read anymore.

- Limit credit cards and bank accounts to just one or two. This will limit the number of statements you have to deal with each month and you may save money on fees.

-Go through mail standing by your recycling bin, shredder or trash can and drop junk mail in immediately.

-When you receive a flyer with time sensitive information (ex. date of a school or church function) jot the important information down on your calendar or input into your PDA. Now you can throw away the paper or if you can’t bring yourself to do this at least you can put the paper in a pending file. This way you will have a back up if you can’t locate your calendar.

Have an easy to use filing system

-Make sure your files are roomy. If you have to push and shove to get a piece of paper in, you will not be motivated to file anything.

-Make sure your filing area is easily accessible. If you can’t get to it easily, you will probably put off filing things.

- Make sure you have a place for every category. Stuff from my kids schools goes into a binder that is already filled with page protectors (useful if paper is not hole punched), bills go into to the “To be Paid” file, party invitations go on the fridge etc.

Purge paper on regular basis

- Take five minutes a day to purge files or 30 minutes a week whatever works for you. Set the timer and just work on cleaning files or clearing up a paper mess you see. You may have places in your office or home where paper piles up. When the timer rings – STOP.

- Have a box for papers you can’t decide about. If your just not sure if you still need it, put papers in a cardboard storage box and store them in an out of the way place.

- When you see paper just floating around, pick it up and put it in a one location. That way it is contained and you can deal with it all at once.

- Clean out your purse once a week or least once a month. I find a lot of stray papers floating around in mine.

- Have a specific file for receipts you might need to keep and clean it out once a month. Receipts will probably go into to your tax or medical file or be thrown away.

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