Organizing Paperwork in the Kitchen
Organizing Paperwork in the Kitchen
Since the kitchen is the heart of the home and often Grand Central Station, keeping the paperwork needed to run your household and family organized in this space is essential.
There are two popular options for managing that everyday paperwork.
- Fill a large 3-ring binder with clear plastic sleeves. Label sections for the restaurant menus, coupons, school schedules, after-school activities, essential phone numbers, entertainment, and activities. Please feel free to file anything you need regularly.
- Purchase a small desktop file box and folders. Create a file for frequently accessed papers, including all of the above and maybe some more. How about adding community events, sports team rosters, and current medical information?
These systems keep paper organized vertically and horizontally in stacks on your kitchen counter.
Basic Organization is your organizer in Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia. We provide organizing services for families, busy professionals, seniors, and home-based business owners. Our passion is helping people achieve peace and simplicity by organizing their homes, routines, and lifestyles. Let our team help you regain control of your environment by organizing your living and storage areas. We work in all areas of your home, including the garage, kitchen, basement, office, bedrooms, and closets.
Our experienced home organizing team members are affiliated with the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO). We prioritize education to stay ahead of trends and provide better client service.
NAPO-WDC awarded Janet the 2023 NAPO-WDC Organizer of the Year. She supports the organization within the community and other businesses.
Subscribe by email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
I keep all my paperwork in my home office these days, but once upon a time (over 30 years ago) I designed my own kitchen, which included a small built-in desk with two file drawers where I kept all the household paperwork, including clipped recipes. I miss that kitchen!
Sounds custom-made for you! As we all go (more) paperless, I think people need a kitchen paper processing area less and less.
I recommend a lucite letter-size hanging file holder with 2 handles available at The Container Store to my clients. This has a small footprint so is perfect for kitchen counters. It’s clear so a person can select pretty hanging folders if they want to. The handles make it easy to move to the kitchen table, the couch or a desk. Having a temporary place to organize paperwork and store things that are accessed often is very important.
I like those file holders too. They are great as temporary paperwork storage.
I use a series of plastic folders (closed on two sides) that sit in a letter holder. They are stored in a cabinet. The categories include Local Services, House Directions, Kitchen Manuals, Dining, and Emergency. This type of system can be easily adapted for the categories that are important to you.
Your file system sounds great. So glad you have something that works for you.
I love these ideas! Paper in the kitchen can get unruly when you are not organized and if many people use the shared space. I love your idea of creating a three-ring binder to hold all the paperwork. It can also include babysitter rules, a budget outline, information about after-school activities, and a cleaning schedule.
These categories are great ideas.
I agree that paper can get out of hand super quickly. Paper needs to be processed often and if left too long they grow into mountains.
I try to take all of the paper that lands in my kitchen and dump it into my husband’s office LOL!
In reality, I do have some paper in my kitchen, but not too much anymore. I find most of my younger clients have everything online (sports schedules, calendars, menus, etc.). I am a paper person, but even I find myself transitioning to less paper. Since I don’t like looking at the paper, I tend to leave it out where I will take care of it quickly.
I also have a bulletin board for invitations and things like that.
I’m with the other commenters that I like the letter files or hanging files that minimize the footprint. Counter space is so valuable that you want to minimize the storage of anything on it, right?
We do have a home office, which is mostly where my husband sits. I figure if he gets to have the office, he gets to house the paper as well.
I love that you pass the responsibility to your husband. I still meet a lot of paper people, but more and more people are going digital. That doesn’t mean that their documents are organized though!
In the house where I grew up, all that paper lived in the kitchen in my mother’s built-in kitchen desk drawers. (She designed the kitchen when we built the house, before a kitchen desk had become standard.) My own kitchen has no paper other than the occasional instruction manual, like when the new air fryer seemed to be possessed, and I keep my papers in my office. But when I have clients whose papers, like the ones you describe, are best kept in the kitchen, my approach is similar to yours.
Binders are useful when you need to be mobile with them, keeping track of kids’ calendars, coupons, and menus when you’re out of the house. However, with so much that’s digital these days, there’s usually not a lot of paper that needs to travel with you, and binders are more easily misplaced, left in the car when you need it inside, and vice versa. I’m more inclined to recommend a half-depth, letter-sized, desk-top box with hanging folders like the one you mention in option #2, and preferably something pretty like Diane’s lucite suggestion. It needs to have a home on the counter where it can be dependably found.
Your mom and Janet B designed desks in the kitchen. Smart women who know what they need to manage their life. Good for them!
I also love a binder with a sleeve protector for things in the kitchen! Specifically, when I loved things into matching containers (pasta, rice, quinoa, etc) the instructions are now in a binder in that cabinet!
Great idea.