Have Centralized Collecting Points for Papers and Things
The Principle
When you know where you normally store different things and papers, you should also find them faster. This way you never more need to use 5 minutes in the morning for a hectic search of your mobile phone, keys or wallet. In stead you are sure to find them fast, and be on your way.
At Home: Storing Your Keys, Wallet, and Cell Phone
I myself used to have serious problems with locating the items mentioned above in the mornings. I could find the cell phone from the kitchen table, under the daily paper, the keys from the pockets of some jacket, and the wallet from a pocket of the jeans I wore the night before. Nowadays I don’t have this problem anymore. My solution was a small white plastic basket that I keep near the front door. When I come home, I empty my pockets there. From there the vital things are also easy to take with me when I go out again. 
“The wallet basket” – reserved ONLY for important things!
The only thing to remember is that the “wallet basket” is only meant for the most critical items. If you don’t follow that rule, it will soon be filled with coins, receipts, pens, and other clutter. For these kinds of secondary items you need to find some other solution. Otherwise you will end up with yet another clutter box.
At Home: Important Papers, Bills
What about important papers? When you come home I assume you too have bills, insurance certificates or such letters waiting. These important papers need to be stored somewhere, before they are lost. I am all for filing and using binders at home. However, filing is best done in batches. So where should the papers be kept in the mean time? I am using the following method, to which I need a simple two box storing cabinet: 
A two compartment storing box for papers (from Ikea)
The process goes like this:
- I read the mail daily. The items that need to be stored I put in the section “Inbox”
- About twice a month, on a Sunday, I pay the bills and process the papers (if a faster response is not needed). I put the processed papers in the section “Processed”.
- About bimonthly I file all the papers in binders, using my system
This system actually works. All those important papers are not longer just here and there – everywhere.
Between work and home
Transporting papers between work and home is often also needed. I used to have those papers going forward and backwards many times, in my briefcase. Often they got seriously injured in my used-to-be-full briefcase. For me the best solution has been to transport all these papers in a dedicated section of the briefcase. About once per day I look in that section at work. If there is something I took from home, I pick it up and process it. The same goes for the other direction.
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