What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Life
Taking back control of the clutter in your life might seem impossible – but there is a way out. The first step to solving your clutter is admitting you have a problem. More specifically, you have to understand exactly what your clutter problem is costing you.
Some of these issues are obvious. For example, if you have unorganized piles of paper everywhere, tracking down important bills is a headache. But clutter takes an emotional toll, too. Ultimately, controlling your clutter won’t just make for a cleaner home and more accessible files – it’ll also have a positive impact on your well-being.
The key message here is: Paper clutter can be costly, and it limits your freedom.
What are the consequences of clutter? First and foremost, there’s a real financial cost to having disorganized papers. For instance, have you ever misplaced a refund check or been unable to return something because you lost the receipt? If your answer was “yes,” you’re not alone. In 2014, $1 billion in gift cards went unclaimed; while there aren’t exact numbers available, it’s a good bet many of those cards were lost.
Clutter also leads to late fees. US credit card companies collected an astounding $12 billion in late-payment penalty fees in 2016. What’s more, research shows that about a quarter of people who pay late have the cash but simply can’t find the bill. Although these costs aren’t always major, they do add up.
There are also physical costs to clutter. Having piles of paper all over your home means less space for living. It’s not uncommon for people to lose a table, or even a room, to papers. And taken to the extreme, hoarding – compulsively collecting items, even when they’re not of any use – can affect your ability to maintain a clean and safe home.
But there are other drawbacks that aren’t as immediately obvious. For example, the average American wastes 55 minutes a day looking for misplaced items. In the long run, that amounts to hundreds of lost hours. We all know that time is valuable; every minute spent searching through piles of clutter and filling out new documents to replace the mislaid ones is time that’s gone forever.
And this wasted time comes at an emotional cost, too. How did you feel the last time you lost something? Not great, right? Trying to keep track of all the paper in your life is emotionally draining, and it becomes a source of stress and anxiety when you fail at it. In fact, research has revealed a direct link between household clutter and increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. It’s safe to say that a clean, organized space boosts your mood in more ways than one.
The Paper Solution: What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Life (2020) is a guide to managing the paper clutter that plagues so many people. It offers a new way to purge your trash, evaluate your documents, and develop systems to process papers as they come in – allowing you to reclaim your space and freedom.
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Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
