It’s week 32 of the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge. Last week, we made a start on our home office by clearing out our desk drawers and office supplies. This week, we continue that work by decluttering paper files and filing cabinets. 

Are you ready for week 32? Let’s get organized!

This post was originally published in August 2021 and republished in September 2024.

What is the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge?

In this year-long journey, we’re tackling one task at a time with the goal of cleaning up and organizing our homes. If you’ve just joined us, no worries. You can jump right in with this week’s challenge. Just check out the first two posts in the series to download your free checklists.

• 52-Week Decluttering Challenge
• Week 1 – Easy Decluttering Checklist

You can get easy access to all previous weekly posts on the main Decluttering page.

Week 32 – Decluttering paper files and filing cabinets

Over the years, I have moved away from keeping a lot of paper files in favour of digital copies. Even with that change, I do have one filing drawer full of paper files. Here’s a before picture of my file drawer.

But I’m not getting off that easily because I also have a 2-drawer filing cabinet that’s in serious need of a clear out.

About 10 years ago, when I first made the move to working from home, I brought home a couple of boxes of contents from my office. Guess where they ended up! That’s right, they are in my filing cabinet, and I haven’t gone through them since the day I brought them home. Here’s a photo of my filing cabinet drawers before I started. I’m sure I’ll uncover some interesting treasures here!

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This week’s decluttering and organizing tips

Before we get to what I got rid of, here are my tips and learnings from week 32.

• Switch to digital bills and statements. It’s one of the easiest ways to reduce physical clutter. I used to have no choice but to clear out my paper files once a year because the drawer would get so full, I couldn’t stuff another piece of paper in it. Now that I’ve switched to digital for most things, I don’t have that prompt, so it had been at least 2 years since I’d gone through my files.
• Unless you need them for warranty or tax purposes, get rid of account statements, pay stubs, receipts and bills that are more than a year or two old.
• Ask yourself if you need to keep physical copies of framed awards, diplomas, and certificates. I had a stack of them that used to be on display in my office, but I don’t want to display them in my home office. I freed up some space by removing some of them from the frames. The ones I wanted to keep in the frames, I laid flat in the bottom of the drawer.

What I got rid of

In total this week, I got rid of 166 items. Not a bad afternoon’s work!

• 6 booklets and brochures
• 83 account statements
• 56 pay stubs
• 2 Christmas stockings
• 5 work notebooks dating back to 2011
• 2 business card display holders
• 2 plate/certificate stands
• 1 pile of hanging folders
• 2 certificate frames
• 2 portfolio folders
• 4 empty electronics boxes
• 1 “Coach of the Year” trophy from a department baseball tournament in 2013

I also found some interesting things that I’ll hang on to for now because they bring back some great memories.

• Good-bye and congratulations cards signed by co-workers.
• Paper copies of old performance reviews. It’s interesting to look back on the projects I worked on early in my career. When I have some time, I’ll scan them to digital copies.
• Photos of co-workers.

But here’s something I’m not getting rid of! It’s a picture of my daughters I kept on my desk when they were small. I’ve given it a new home on display with other special items on top of the armoire in my bedroom.

And here’s how things look now. Look! Empty drawer space!

2024 Update

It has been three years so I’m rebooting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge to see how much I can get rid of in 2024.

I had already decluttered my filing cabinet last week along with my desk drawers so all that remained for this week was the single filing drawer in my desk where I keep current bank statements, receipts, and bills. I got rid of a pile of papers I no longer need for a total of 51 items.

So that’s week 32 done and my home office is looking much more organized.  

If you have friends or family members who could benefit from a little less clutter in their lives, please share this post and spread the word!

Do you have tips for decluttering paper files and keeping them organized? Tell us below.