Desk clutter: 5 ways to get rid of it
What is desktop clutter?
Wikipedia defines clutter as “A confused or disordered state or collection. Excessive, unnecessary, or uncontrolled clutter can be a symptom of hoarding.”
Do you have piles of paper lining your desk or kitchen counter? Do you save all the junk mail that comes into your home over the course of a week, a month, or more? If it does, this is what is known as disorder. Here are some ways to start getting rid of the clutter in your home.
mail mess
First, let’s tackle mail clutter. That is the postal mail that arrives at your house offering you credit card offers or any type of advertising to buy something.
- If you have a paper shredder, you’ll want to shred all credit card offers that come your way in the mail. Don’t throw them away, shred them, or if you don’t have a shredder, put them all in a paper bag and burn them. You don’t want your personal information falling into the wrong hands.
- Then discard all the ads you were saving. You’ll feel much better once you start getting rid of all the mail. This is just the first step. You need to keep track of the spam that comes into your home every day. So it won’t accumulate.
- What about bills that arrive in the mail? Start paying these bills online. Create one file for all your invoices. When you pay them online, print your confirmation and file the invoice in the corresponding file. You should keep a copy of your electric bills, gas bills, and even your credit card statements for tax purposes.
- Another way to reduce clutter and also help the environment is to do your banking online. You can reconcile your bank account online and then save the statement to your hard drive or USB drive. That way, you’ll have all your statements in one safe place and you won’t have the clutter of paperwork.
- What about all the photos you have in boxes that you wanted to put in a photo album? We all have them. Instead of printing your photos, use a digital camera and store the photos on your hard drive or a USB drive. You can also share photos using Facebook. That way, instead of great photos of your kids and grandkids ending up in a drawer or box, you can share them with family and friends.
Desktop clutter accumulates over time, and you may not be able to get rid of it in a day. Take your time and follow the steps above to get started with a tidy desktop.
Do you have ideas on how to get rid of the clutter on your desk? Send me your thoughts in the comment box below.