What’s even in there??
Many of us have some kind of filing system at home and/or at the office. There are many good reasons to keep certain documents and items, and having a central organizer such as a filing cabinet can prove useful. It certainly doesn’t have to be as big as the one pictured, or alternatively, it may be even bigger! Whatever the case, these units need to be decluttered from time to time. Many things we slot into filing cabinets no longer need to be kept, and going through and getting rid of ‘no longer needed items’ is a must, otherwise they will become overstuffed and hard to manage.
The best suggestion I can give you for how to declutter and organize your filing cabinet may not appeal to you, but it may be the most effective way to really get a good look at all of the items in it. You guessed it: you are going to need to empty the cabinet out one section at a time.
If the files aren’t already labelled, you will have your work cut out for you. Labelling your files and placing them in alphabetical order is a must so that items, when needed, can easily be retrieved. The labels can be stickers or you can simply write directly onto the file folders. Go through each file assessing what needs to stay and what needs to go. Only keep the items that truly need keeping – if you have a receipt for a toaster oven that you no longer even have, you probably don’t need to keep that receipt anymore. If your file cabinet(s) is at the office or even in a home office, the same decluttering rules apply. You may have more cabinets if it’s for work, so take your time; there is no rush and you can work at your own pace.
Last but not least, here’s hoping you find some long lost treasures along the way – you never know what may unfold out of our files!
Aside from helping with all of our decluttering needs, Avery hosts the Journey Into Yoga Podcast where she guides you through a different yoga pose each week explaining all that it has to offer the body and mind. Episodes and more can be found at averyrich.com. Check out this week’s show where Avery continues the journey through the poses that make up a sun salute, moving to plank!
Avery Rich
Avery hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a background in both law and yoga! As a long time Yoga Instructor, she hosts the Journey Into Yoga podcast, a show which explores and demystifies a different yoga posture each week. A true believer in creating space in our bodies through yoga, her Declutter U newsletter is designed to provide tips and tools on how to create more space in our lives by decluttering.
