Confession: I’m kind of an organizing / decluttering junkie. It’s one of my tribes. I love a clear workspace.

Paper is the worst. I think it’s because paper represents security in a world that is rapidly going all digital. We still call a paper copy a hard copy, as if that means permanent.

But if you’re like me, the name hard copy usually means hard to find.

I recently read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I found her sections on paper clutter the best of all. In a nutshell: When it comes to paper, get rid of most of it. This is so obvious and so intuitive, and yet so rare.

This fits with her overall approach to cleaning up, which is first to get rid of what is not necessary (decluttering), and then organize only what remains. [If you need help with getting rid of stuff, check out these guys.]

Get rid of most of it. That way, Kondo writes, you won’t waste time looking for what you know you don’t have.

Get rid of most of it. Keep tax stuff and important legal and financial documents… but not all of them. (Note: Check with your accountant when it comes to the details.)

Get rid of most of it. But keep what you do keep organized. Andrew Mellen has a great chapter on organizing paper in file folders in his book Unstuff Your Life. The solution, no surprise, is filing.

Get rid of most of it. Go paperless. Not paper free, but paper less. Stop pressing “print” for every single interesting thing on your computer screen. This one habit alone has cut my paper clutter in half.

Get rid of most of it. Snap a picture. Scan it into your computer. Email a copy to yourself.

Then breathe.