Papers are a part of my problem as well, exact same thing I have all sorts of stuff mixed together so this is what I did. I got a nice paper shredder (part of my problem is fear of identity theft) and I bought one of those small file holders and some files. I go thru paper by paper and if it is junk yet has my name on it I shred that part and toss the rest, any bill that is not a receipt for a big ticket purchase that's more then a few years old gets the shred, if it is newer I make a file. Now I have some organization. I made a little shred area to try and stay on it. I am not kidding when I tell you first go I had 8 large contractor size garbage bags. Now it has been about 9 months and I am down to maybe one normal grocery bag every 2 weeks or so.

I keep bottles of cosmetic stuff too- I bought these $1 plastic containers and sorted them, when I did that I realized I had some things I would never use and if they were good I put them in Chinese auction baskets, otherwise I tossed them. I will never need handcream ever again.

I basically live in a studio apt which is lucky since I cant fill it too much, however its pretty full and the floor is covered of each room area.

I seem to hoard tons of beauty items, tons of face cream, eye cream, shampoo's, body lotions, body scrubs...when i shop i always want the new brand as I decide the previous brand didnt work. I keep them all. I have tons of socks that dont match or are so mixed up into other clothes, I dont know where the mates are. I have a lot of clothes for dressing up but I basically wear sweats or just black slacks and simple tshirts all the time. A lot of my clothes are barely worn, some too small. I also am ok with letting go, donating...I just wish I had the right furniture or knew how to arrange my house so I could keep some of my things and figure out what needs to go.
Luckily my neighbors are all strange so I dont care what they think although I am embarrassed for them to see my cleaning, they all know I have a lot of stuff but I blame it on my having a studio as I am in the only studio. Most of them dont care and are friendly to me...so about 60% of me doesnt care what they think if they see cleaning or throwing out stuff.
Sometimes I put empty boxes outside and try to categorize what goes to donations, what goes to storage to file later, I have about 10 boxes of papers, mementos, important receipts, important docs like medical, insurance, lawsuits, people's address's but its all mixed in with magazines, travel brocheres...junk mail etc..
I guess its overwhelming to me so Im also unsure where to start. I have a long rectangle shape bathroom and open kitchen and bought some bookcases but I just never learned how to organize. I feel like I dont have the right shelves or cabinents. So I cant decide whether to throw out my furniture and start over, most of its from good will so I am not attached to it. I thought of just trying to put everything in a box by category like all the face creams, all the shampoo, all the body items. but i get exhausted and stop because I think well maybe its the furniture of the wrong dimension that is the problem. I just am confused on what to do first.
I wouldnt mind hiring someone but I feel wierd paying someone to go through my stuff piece by piece, I want to get it ready first somehow. I want to make some sense of it.