bitsy, great post! Very helpful. And I hadn't even noticed that search button until you pointed it out. Thanks!

At Dave and Bitsy, Thank you both so much! Those two ideas about shredding while watching tv and scanning/putting things on flashdrives are great!!

lex
Re your post about paperwork on March 16 2015
."Does anyone have any tips on how to organize papers? Or what I should save? Right now I save basically everything...letters, cards, school papers."

On every one of the boards here there is a search box in the upper right just below "new topics" I have used it successfully sometimes before. like if I was looking for a post that Roxie or some other poster made. But when I put "organizing papers" in the search box the results didn't seem very relevant. I must not know enough Boolean I guess. Anyway the following are some ideas.

The following thread topic has interesting ideas for organizing papers (and many other useful tips)
Hoarding Help Message Boards : The Daily Chat :
It works for me!

As a hoarder, what specific, practical ideas or techniques have actually worked for you in the past to help you get rid of and/or organize your things, ideas that others might not have even thought of?
From <http://hoardingcleanup.com/message_board/?msgbrd=10&topic=8247>

examples:
bitsy Posted: 24 July 2014 - 04:37 PM
re computer clutter... I suppose I am not the only one who can use advice about how to de-clutter and organize all the email, documents, pictures, lists, and import stuff on our computers. I found the following article which I hope to utilize and thought maybe one of you might get something out of also... http://phys.org/news/2013-03-digital-de-clutter.html

Mel99 Posted: 25 September 2014 - 12:22 AM
.One of the areas I have issues with is papers - being afraid to throw things out with my name and address on them (and sometimes things that really legitimately should be shredded like stuff that has my social security number on it). I set up a box near my couch and anytime i'm sorting through stuff or come across something that needs to be shredded, i put it in the box. Then when i'm sitting on the couch watching tv, I pull stuff out of the box and shred it.

Visitor Posted: 08 January 2015 - 01:17 PM
I have a scanner, which I use to scan all my important documents into my computer. I scan less important documents too - then throw them away or shred them.

Rave Posted: 28 January 2015 - 11:07 PM
.The other thing that really helped me is that for the last year or so, I've been channeling my hoarding compulsion into *digital* hoarding. I bought some inexpensive flash drives and downloaded images of cool items and clothing I would find online. It gives me satisfaction to view these items and organize them in computer folders. But in the meantime, my house is no longer accumulating stuff, and my computer isn't becoming overloaded because all the images are on small thumb drives.

I know that to some, collecting clippings and digital images may seem like a silly way of doing things, but I know for a fact that it has helped me a great deal. I'm collecting and viewing, but I'm not continuing to fill real-life rooms.

Also. when I did an online search for "organizing papers at home" there were lots that looked relevant. For instance:

http://www.womansday.com/home/organizing-cleaning/tips/a2540/curb-paper-clutter-at-home-119208/ . I really liked the info in this article. but. the table did not have guidelines and so is kinda hard to follow.

http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-Paperwork-at-Home ..9 "easy" steps .some of the comments seemed helpful also.

http://www.cozi.com/live-simply/10-best-tips-organizing-paper-clutter .some additional tips. and also at www.cozi.com The Cozi Family Organizer is a FREE app website that helps busy parents manage share the family calendar, remember grocery shopping lists, more! . and From <https://www.pinterest.com/cozi/>

12-18 months ago I saw a post or two about this somewhere on the site. No time to look now. Sometime, if I have time to look and can find it again I will post here. It seems like someone who does organizing for a living made one or two posts about organizing papers a long time ago in one of the threads somewhere on the site.

Congratulations! Music and cleaning are a perfect combination!