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Paper clutter is something we often turn a blind eye toward in our day-to-day lives. We get so used to seeing those toppling heaps of papers that we often don’t notice them at all until one of them collapses, making a mess all over the desk or the floor. But we wonder why it takes us so long to pay our bills, to get our taxes in order, to run our monthly budget. Usually these tasks take longer because we cannot find what we are searching for in our cluttered papers. Here are 4 sneaky types of paper clutter that can make a mess of your household:

1. Billing paperwork

If you don’t take care of your bills right away, or if you receive a lot of paper bills instead of electronic bills, you may find yourself with a growing stack of billing documentation on your desktop.

2. Receipts and other budgeting paperwork

How often do you run your household budget? Once a week? Once a month? Whether you do it often or infrequently, odds are your receipts and accounting paperwork are forming a pile somewhere.

3. Flyers, brochures, business cards, etc.

While we are running around town on business or personal errands, we generally accumulate papers for shops and services we are interested in. We keep these handy because we plan to use them soon—but they tend to stack up quickly.

4. Keepsakes

Not all paper clutter in the household is going to involve “recent” documents (‘recent” here having the meaning of sometime this year). Keepsakes and mementoes from years past also tend to accumulate.

While hanging onto paperwork is a good idea in general (odds are you are going to need those receipts, accounting papers, tax documents, bills, flyers, and so on eventually), paper clutter can make your entire household look and feel messy. It can also end up burying the documents you do need to reference.

For that reason it is a good idea to sort your papers into plastic containers for paperwork. With plastic storage containers for paper, you can corral these documents so that they no longer clutter your desktop, countertops, or other surfaces. Label each clear plastic container so that you know exactly what is inside, and set up an area in your basement or in a closet where you can store old paperwork in plastic storage containers labeled by year. You only need to keep about three years’ worth of most types of documents.

Ideally, you should have a paperwork station in your home where you can quickly and easily take care of bills and file old bills, receipts, tax documents, and more. You also may want to have a filing folder for flyers, pamphlets and the like, as well as a plastic storage bin for older items of interest. Finally, invest in clear plastic bins for keepsakes for each of your family members. Once you get all those papers out of the way, you can breathe easy and enjoy a clutter-free environment!