Easy lifestyle changes to fight paper clutter
October 6, 2008 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Home & Living
Many of us accumulate paper clutter without even thinking about it. Often we just absent-mindlessly pick paper clutter up, order paper clutter, or stick with old habits that create paper clutter. Try the following lifestyle changes in order to win the paper clutter war:
Avoid front of store paper clutter: You know those obnoxious magazine racks at the front of stores – the ones filled with free home buyer pamphlets, coupon ads, car buying magazines, and more. Don’t go there. Walk right past them; don’t even look their way. You may see these at libraries too. Granted the library racks are more seductive than front of store racks, but unless you honestly need a booklet about community events, let it go.
Don’t order magazines on instant renewal: Every time you subscribe to a magazine, you should carefully think it over, which you can’t do if it’s on auto renewal. Tastes and free-time change all the time. Don’t order a magazine unless you really read it; that’s not eco-friendly PLUS creates unnecessary paper clutter.
Cut down on newspapers: If you only read the newspaper on the weekend, but they offered you all week for just $3.00 more per month, so you took the deal, cancel it. All that extra paper clutter is not worth $3.00 – is it? Also, don’t forget to cancel your whole subscription when you go on vacation, so you don’t come home to clutter.
Quit with the travel brochures: Whether you go somewhere near (the art museum) or far (Rome), there’s bound to be travel info brochures and leaflets galore. Leave them there. I swear, you won’t read them later, no matter how cool they look.
What lifestyle changes have you tried to cut out paper clutter?
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online statments save so much paper!
enter me
I have clutter all over my dining room table! Where are we suppose to eat? I feel yah!
We try to get bills online and pay them online.
i read online
I also do all of my banking online because I just hate clutter.
I was in a sea of paper, it was everywhere…in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the living room, it was literally driving me crazy. We have since started online billpaying, we no longer receive any newspapers as you can find anything online, school papers get reused into art projects or used for packaging. Our landfills are overflowing with paper products. Biggest pet peeve of mine is when that person in front of you at the grocery store asks for paper bags….and they want them doubled! UGH!
Great tips for helping to deal with paper clutter. Thanks!
great tips!
choose electronic magazines rather than the paper copies. Now just my computer desktop is cluttered.(lol)
I haven’t touched paper bills in years.. Paperless is the best option
I really need help with cleaning up my clutter.
i file the brochures i get on vacations by place so they are both out of the way and easy to find if i ever go back there again!
enter me!
I open my mail right next to the recycling bin so no excuse to throw the paper away.
I pay my bills online
I am now trying to throw junk mail out on a daily basis. I used to just toss it aside until I had time to go through it. Well, the time never came and I almost drowned in the clutter! I am a work in progress.
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Clips! All sorts of clips. I clip like things togather in my desks and this makes it so much easier and neater.
count me in
I do almost all my bill paying online. There are a couple that I still have to pay the old fashioned way though (garbage and water). I think I only go through a box of checks every other year now too.
I am loving Blogtoberfest! It’s so fun to enter for surprises!
declutter it!! I love my paper shredder!
We do e-billing online….saves on envelopes and money!
Enter me please
I stand right in front of the recycling bin as I open the mail and all junk goes right in, other stuff goes right to the shredder.
PLEASE COUNT ME IN ON THIS AWESOME GIVEAWAY
Let all go paper less. Save the trees
It’s unbelievable the amount of paper my children accumulate from school. Not schoolwork but fundraising solicitations. I don’t bring mail in the house unless it is important.
I’d love to win.
I am on a quest for organization, Please count me in for this sweepstakes
Wow- very useful tips!
Blogtoberfest is so much fun!
I rarely, if ever, opt for a receipt at the ATM. In my opinion, that type of transaction is less prone to error than, say, a point-of-sale (POS) transaction.
I recycle all of my paper clutter (almost!) junk mail, newspapers, magazines – all that stuff!
I would love to win a surprise!
I don’t subscribe to the newspaper, I only buy it on Sunday when there are coupons. I haven’t yet gone to paperless billing because I feel that I get more information when I can see the bill in hand but I do pay everything online.
Paperless billing is a quick way to cut down on paper clutter.
Don’t subscribe to the newspaper.
E-books!
I am sinking in paperwork over 17 years of it I rip out articles I will read later or places I want to see and stick them in a rubbermaid container to read later and later has not come….pick Me please smile