Drowning in Paper!!

Is it just me, or does the paper just multiply anymore? I am drowning. There are several categories of paper of course:

Bills
Sale Flyers
Newspapers
Credit Card Offers
Junk Mail
Phone messages that need to be returned
Magazine subscriptions
Kids Artwork
Honey-Do lists ---LOL!
Letters that need responses
Papers to be filed for future reference (taxes, medical, etc)

While I realize that you can stop some of them from coming to your house, most can't. I have tried (and failed at) many different methods of corralling all this paper. I've tried the tickler file, the portable file box, the inbox-outbox, the file drawer, the filing cabinet.

I can't say that any of them have really worked. What I have come to realize is that no system is going to work, if you 1) don't make the time to process the paper and 2) stay on top of it...and there is my downfall. When you are so busy just trying to keep up with the dailyness of life, paperwork is not high on the list of priorities.....cooking, cleaning, schooling and running a business are.

Of course it wouldn't hurt to have the hubby and kids helping out either! But I digress! My plan is to really cut down on the stuff coming into our house and this summer, clear out the backlog of files. Then I need to schedule a block of time every week to deal with it all so it doesn't get out of hand again.

If you have any great ideas, I'm all ears!