Day 54: Sticky Notes and Scrap Paper

What: Sticky notes and scrap paper

Why: Do you ever need to quick jot something down but can’t find a blank piece of paper? So you quickly jot down the number on the corner of a piece of paper, but then later find out you either threw that paper away or that the paper was actually important. Or maybe you have so many sticky note pads and scrap paper that your drawer is overflowing and they all get crumpled when you try to open it. Sticky notes and scrap paper are handy items, until they end up cluttering up your drawers and you are not able to find them when you need them most! Here’s to finding them when you need them! (Call it scratch or scrap paper…whatever it is, it is time to organize it!)

How:
1. Find all of the “loose” scrap paper and sticky note pads you have. You may have some in your office, in the kitchen, in your purse…

2. Ask:

• Are they in a convenient location?
• Can you find them when you need them?
• Do you keep every scrap piece of paper?
• How many pads of paper and scrap paper do you need?

3. Divide your scrap paper and sticky notes into two piles – one to donate or recycle and the other to keep.

4. The sticky note pads and scrap paper you will use, put them in a place you can easily locate them. For example, by the telephone, in the office, or in the room where you most often jot down notes. By putting them in multiple locations, you will hopefully refrain from jotting down notes or numbers on the corner of a piece of paper.

5. Recycle the scrap paper you will not use – do NOT hang out to it just because it is a “good” piece of paper. Recycling can do it’s job too. If they are nice notepads or sticky notes, donate them. It may seem silly to donate such a small item, but hopefully throughout this 100 Days of Less, you are filling up some boxes to donate!

Confession of the Day: I used to keep every single scrap piece of paper I got. If something printed on only half of the sheet, I would cut the other half off to use as scrap paper. I realized those loose pieces of paper were cluttering our “office” drawer in our kitchen. Plus, I had about 5 pads of sticky notes that I was not using. To the recycle bin my scrap paper went! Now that drawer is much more organized and I STILL have plenty of sticky notes to jot down all of my notes and numbers!