Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.

Today we hear from Maria, who shares a powerful and inspirational perspective on decluttering the excess paperwork in our lives.



Maria writes:

My minimalist blind spot: paper.

My mother passed on in 2009 and my father followed this summer. Decades of more (or less) organized paper archives were left behind: phone bills, bank statements, legal and medical papers, clippings from magazines, articles cut out from newspapers, books, notebooks, travel catalogs, travel memorabilia, magazines, and recipes. Hundreds of photos and negatives those were loose or enveloped in shoe boxes. In addition to the weeks it took to go through it all, it was also so very depressing: to learn true details of events that you had been told otherwise or to read the gory details of your parent’s cancer history. It was mostly a sad archive. One cannot help wondering why you would archive the sad moments of your life so carefully. Why not throw out it all when you can? Then the wannabe life archives made me sad: all those recipes and travel locations I know my parents never tried or visited. Why not? Should I have known?

After going through my parents’ papers I dug into my own archives. I quickly realized that I had diaries, clippings, articles, recipes, piles of business cards from past jobs, double or triple photo sets, negatives, tax archives, dream/vision boards, all Christmas greetings I’ve ever received, letters, cards, stamps, all kid’s art from school, Mother’s Day cards and kids’ birthday greetings. All this neatly boxed or in binders in our walk-in closet, desk drawers, kids’ rooms, bookshelves – just everywhere.

There – I had done exactly as my dear parents: archived my real life and wannabe life. After the total embarrassment came determination. It dawned to me that I want my kids to be free from any hidden or visible paper burdens from the past generations. It ends here. I’m cleaning this paper junk out of our lives!

Gone is now that fits into 10 standard moving boxes (volume total 690 liters = 170 dry gallons). While some paper is handled once and for all, other papers need maybe four times before I can finally let go. I have now accepted this and am being both gentle and firm with myself. I feel like the house has more air, the air is fresher and the light shining in from the windows is brighter. It was a heavy load hidden in all those boxes and binders. I am rising like a Phoenix bird from the burned paper piles into freedom!

So my dear minimalist friends: what have you done lately with any paper that enters your home? Archived it? Why? Dig deeper and see what paper you tend to archive. See it all through a stranger’s eyes: when finding it, will it make you happy, sad or wonder why on Earth this paper was saved? Does it reveal a Fantasy-me identity? Does it carry a clear illusion around it that this item may be worth a lot of money just because it is very old?

Simply and bravely toss all paper you can because our generation will be the first to leave behind both paper and electronic personal archives. Use whatever motivation trick you know to get rid of the piled paper and stop the paper flow into your home: stop buying magazines and printing stuff and start to use all e-services you possibly can for banking, healthcare, business catalogs – you know what it is! Let go and trust that you will be fine without all that paper. Enjoy walks in the forest and hug trees knowing that the paper you never need anymore may live on in that tree.

{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}