Week 4 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge was by far the most difficult week so far. Not in that it was hard to do, but it was just extraordinarily dull work.
Sorting through papers is by far one of my least favorite tasks to do in keeping up my house. Nonetheless, I pushed through the task. Now it is done, and for that I am grateful!
I typically kept my papers at a decent “minimal” amount already, so I didn’t have too much to sort through.
Once again, the tasks for the week are split up into simple tasks for each day. This was one task that I did over the course of one day instead of splitting it up. Overall, the task probably took between 3 and 4 hours to complete.
Marie Kondo’s recommendations noted to gather all the papers on day 1, sort them into categories on day 2, and then had the remaining days allocated to joy checking various categories of papers.
Below is the process I used to go through my papers. For the most part, I followed Marie Kondo’s guidelines. However, there were a few areas I decided to stray from her methodology and where I did will be noted below.
Sorting Papers
Marie Kondo’s Golden Rule on Papers
Throw out EVERYTHING! More specifically, Marie Kondo states to toss items that do not fall into three categories when you first start tidying your papers.
The three categories are: currently in use, need for a limited time, and keep indefinitely.
Marie Kondo states there are very few items that you actually need to hold on to. The items to keep are your insurance policies, lease information, taxes, mortgage information, and warranties.
There are some items that can be kept for a period of time. These include credit card statements until after you review the statement. Once the credit card statement has been reviewed, it can be thrown out.
Another item that a lot of people keep but Marie Kondo states can be thrown out are manuals. These days, most manuals can be found on the internet, which is why they do not need to be kept.
This is one area, I differed from Marie Kondo’s guidance. For some of my items I do not know the exact name/brand of the item I would need instructions for. For those types of items, I elected to keep my manuals.
An example of this is the crib for my daughter. There are no markings on the crib telling me the brand or name of the crib. I had to reference the manual to figure out how to turn it into a toddler bed and research what type of rail I could get to make it into a toddler bed.
Do Not Include Sentimental Items
She recommends not including items such as old letters or diaries in this category. The goal is to include the mundane paperwork, such as bills, manuals, warranties, and the like.
If you were to include those sentimental items, it would take you way too long to go through the papers. The sentimental items can be joy checked during the upcoming “sentimental item week”.
Marie’s Rules on School Materials
In her books, Marie Kondo talks a lot about people who are lifelong learners in her sections on books and papers.
It sounds like those who are lifelong learners tend to keep more of those two items around their house.
Her recommendation is to throw out all notes from courses and seminars. Marie’s reasoning for this is that keeping these materials around keeps you from applying the information you learned during the course.
Marie recommends that if you find yourself needing to reference something you learned, to retake the seminar and actually apply the knowledge afterward.
My Results
When I first started sorting papers, I had a full file cabinet full of them along with a separate container I used for manuals. Besides that, I had other papers just stacked on and around the file cabinet.
Now that I am done, I have the container for manuals and one file cabinet drawer full of papers. The rest of the items I was able to toss.
Having a full drawer empty brings me extra joy. At this moment, I have been looking for somewhere better to store my printer supplies, and this extra drawer seems like the perfect spot!
We’ll see if that holds up to the ideal spot in a few weeks when we get to the week where everything gets a place.
Storing Papers
Keep 2 Categories of Papers
Once you have sorted through all of your papers, you should only have 2 categories of papers remaining: Need to do something with and papers to keep.
Papers that Need to be Dealt With
Marie Kondo’s recommendation for papers that need to be dealt with is to store them all in one location. That way they are easy to find.
She also recommends storing these papers upright. If the papers are laid down it will be hard to determine what is in the pile of papers to deal with. Below is an example of our pending paperwork storage bin.
Set Aside a Day to Deal With Papers
Another recommendation of Marie Kondo’s is to set aside one day each week where you tend to your papers that need to be dealt with. Doing this assures the papers will be tended to and all the items taken care of.
Storing Warranties
One of Marie Kondo’s recommendations for most items kept is to store them in a clear, expandable file folder.
She notes that many people over categorize their paper storage. When you have too many categories, you are more likely to miss the paper you are looking for when you are going through the files.
If you store them all together in one expandable folder, you will have to look through each item to find the warranty you need. It seems likely that you would end up doing this anyway if you have them over sorted.
Plus, as you go through the items, you can look at the information on each one and toss the irrelevant ones every time you need to reference a warranty. It’s an extra check to make sure you don’t keep too many irrelevant papers around!
Another way to minimize papers
I don’t recall this specifically being mentioned in Marie Kondo’s books, but I did one additional thing as I was sorting through my papers that will help keep them at a minimum.
Sign up for e-statements or e-bills. Doing this will minimize the paper clutter around your house. If you need to reference something, they are available to view online. If you really need to, you can print them from there.
This was one task I did the day I sorted through all my papers. I realized that I only really reference my bank statements at year-end for tax preparation purposes, so I signed up to get them online instead.
Now I won’t have to go through and shred my bank statements every year at tax time. I can just print the ones I need out as needed.
Feeling After Week 4 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge
This week has had the least impact on me so far. I always tried to go through my papers once every few years, so they were fairly cleared out when I got to them.
Plus, for the most part, the papers were stored out of sight. The saying “out of sight out of mind” really rings true here.
They didn’t seem to weigh on my mind as much as my other items because they weren’t something I went into every day or saw around the house all the time.
Therefore, they weighed on my mind less often than my clothes or books did.
That being said, it still feels good to have gone through them and cleared out the unnecessary stuff.
Take the Challenge With Me!
The positive impacts of the 8-Week Tidy Challenge are slowly showing up throughout our home. These impacts are weaving into other aspects of our minds as well.
I can feel my mind slowly clearing as the progress is made.
This week is an interesting one since it is Christmas week. Normally, when we come home with a pile of new gifts, I am overwhelmed by what to do with all the stuff and where we will put it.
This year is the first year in a while I haven’t felt that way. Most of the items brought into our house are ones we really love.
Plus we have more space for items we love because we have gotten rid of a lot of the items that no longer bring us joy.
The Marie Kondo 8 Week Tidy Challenge is a manageable and nicely organized way to get into tidying your house.
Curious about what Week 3 of the Tidy Challenge entailed? Check out my blog article on that here: Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge: Week 3.
Coming up next week: Week 5 of the Tidy Challenge – Komono. I have a feeling this category will take more than one week in our house. We have quite a few areas that haven’t been cleared out yet!
If you’re participating, how is your tidying going? What is one area of your house that you’d like to tidy in the upcoming year?
