When I say that I go through the kitchen and dining room clearing off papers at least twenty times a day, I think I might be telling a fib. It has got to be more than that!
Before school the book bags are cleaned out one more time... Papers fly! It's like they magically recreate over night.
Go and retrieve the mail. Quickly glance through it... Oh no! Kris is pulling over the Christmas tree! and there it continues to lay.
Dyl comes home and pulls out his homework and weekly mail folder. Here comes a stack of papers to be put somewhere.
Go to make dinner. Can't find the right recipe! Papers, cookbooks and recipe cards litter the table and counters.
Andy comes home. "Look babe! A paycheck!" and there it sits on the counter.
The Problem:
It is uncomfortable and hard work to make dinner and eat dinner on a pile of paperwork. If the paperwork sits there at our house, it gives me an easy excuse to not cook and not serve my family dinner.
I am also a huge believer in clutter making you feel uncomfortable. It's aggrivating when you clear a spot for dinner and bump into a pile of paper and it goes flying to the floor.
The Solution That Works For Us:
I am not good with paper. I hate to file. I hate to stack. I just cannot stand paper. After trying every idea people offered, I went to Staples and bought a tote (This can be a tote from ANY store.. ) It looks kinda like this:
I have a tote for "Mommy and Daddy" and a tote for "Dyl". When my other kids are older and have a lot of paper come home, I will get a tote for them as well. I just toss all the papers into that tote. EVERY paper goes in there. That way when I am looking for a specific thing, I just go to the tote which pertains to the thing I am trying to locate. Every week or so, I go through the tote and throw out unneeded or "junk" mail and thin it down as I go through. At the end of the month, I put all the paper work from the tote into either a smaller tote or a big ziploc and put the month and the year on it.
Now is this the most organized method of storing paperwork? Nope but it works for us!
The challenge for Wednesday and Thursday is to find an effective way to store paperwork that isn't on the kitchen table or the counters!
People can always use suggestions and I LOVE hearing what works for other people! So... What works for you when it comes to paper?
Happy De-Papering!
1 comments:
Hi Jodi!! We have a small filing cabinet in the basement. In it are files for all birth cert., adoption files, warranties, receipts etc.. I have a place on my computer desk that all the monthly bills, checkbook, stamps, etc.. go into. Each child has a box ( i use a copy paper box with a lid) for school papers that I want to keep. I have gotten very selective over what I keep now. When Alan graduated and I went through his stuff and realized how much was just trash it really annoyed me that I held onto that for all those years. Now I keep the things that are important or just to cute to part with. Everyday when the mail comes I try to go through it and put bills where they go, throw out junk, magazines to the appropriate place etc. School papers I fill out as soon as I go through the backpack and put them back in to return to school the next day and I try to at least put all school papers in the right boxes once a week. For me taking about 10 minutes a day to do this keeps the counter and computer desk clear and also I know where everything is if we are looking for something
Post a Comment