Phase 1: Week 2 SUCCESS!
I have conquered the office. Yay me!
I should have taken a "before" picture, but was too scared of the amount of paperwork to think about that LOL! I was very proud of myself for finishing this, so I took an "after" picture:
The trays are labeled "Personal," "Business," and "Customer." The entire thing was FULL all the way to the handle AND there was more stuffed underneath. There was also a stack on my husband's desk.
All of the paperwork is now residing in proper file folders, in proper hanging files. Several are in the "round" file as well.
The LAST time I decluttered the office (back in the summer), I decided that I was going to downsize from 6 drawers of files to 4. I set my goal and tossed, tossed, tossed. I was able to get all our necessary file needs into a 4 drawer cabinet. I even made pretty labels.
I divided the drawers into "Customers," "Accounts Payable" (which holds business and personal AP), Miscellaneous (those weird things like "autographs" and "student ID cards from college"), and "Receipts."
The "Receipts" drawer is my favorite. Have you ever lost a receipt you needed to make a return? I've lost count of the times that's happened to me. I finally pulled together this system and it works for me.
I have the files divided by STORES. At the end of the month, I try to be diligent about matching them to their various credit card statements and then tossing or shredding. If there are any long-term "keepers," I have a file for those, too. I also collect all the receipts regarding a project or Christmas in their own folder, rather than by the store. (The "Christmas" file is the red tab. I'm creative, aren't I?)
It works for me.
Somehow filing needs to become part of my weekly chores so I don't have to go through this again.
Wait...a....minute.... My son can read AND alphabetize. Hmmmm.
Pardon me for a moment. (Oh, son....! Could you come here, please?)
OK, I'm back. Tomorrow I will do the office supplies closet (which is actually fairly organized), and the laundry/mud room. It won't take long, either as I try to stay on top of that.
Until tomorrow.
5 comments:
Wow, I admire you! I have a pile (read: huge black garbage bag) of stuff that I have to shred and file. I told Hubbs that now that the house is actually unpacked and stuff is just kind of sitting around, I might have to actually start working! ;0)
Congratulations on conquering the paper pile! It's such a relief, isn't it? I have been working on our office recently, too, and I must admit that when it came time to sort through papers, I stopped working on the project and procrastinated for an entire month before resuming the process. It really was a painful process. We're still trying to figure out a way to streamline the office space even more since--we hope--the second bedroom might someday soon be a nursery. And then the office will have to move to the living room or our bedroom. I do file older records we rarely access in a separate cabinet in the garage. That's nice because it keep the number of drawers inside down to two, which fit under the desk.
Ooooh....I have a question for you...what do you do about computer cables? That has to be our biggest organizational disaster around the house.
OK...I confess...I avoided this declutter task like the plague and gave it to my husband to deal with. I couldn't face it! You are tough!!
Emer--It's a well-known fact that paper that is waiting for you to do something with it will always multiply. There might even be TWO bags now. I've done my civic duty and warned you! (Ha!)
Humblelabor--two thoughts on the cables.
1) Label the cables. Sharpie the name on a plastic bread tab and attach it to the cord. I've learned this the hard way as I've crawled around under the desk trying to figure out what was what. I got that idea from Martha. Here's a link showing the idea:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/cord-labels?autonomy_kw=computer%20cords&rsc=header_4
2) For the wires you can use something like this to keep them together:
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?searchId=18971610&itemIndex=5&CATID=74534&PRODID=10011728
Or you can be frugal (sounds better than cheap) and just use insulation tubing from Home Depot. This makes them look neat as well as contained.
OR--you can follow my expert lead and use twist ties.
Of course, maybe I should stop using the twist ties considering I'm trying to add more beauty to my home...hmmm.
Thanks for the tips!
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