Organization

[qos]

I've spent most of today cleaning house with the doors and windows open. It feels much better in here than it did this morning, but I'm still far from finished.

The biggest challenge to my living space right now is the piles, folders, and boxes of paper that need to be processed and stored. I have business records, personal financial and health records, family records, inspirational clippings, pictures, articles, and assorted other paper stuff that I need to organize.

I have several filing cabinets, but have yet to actually create a system for them. (The fact that the biggest one is in Wolfling's walk-in closet, which is more often than not blocked doesn't help -- but she's working on that at this very moment.) I need to figure out a system of file folders, portfolios, and etc. . . But it's going to be a big, ugly job and -- I fear -- take up a lot of floor space while I'm in process.

I guess I should start by assessing what's already in my file drawers and make sure there's a workable system there, then perhaps I can expedite getting things into storage rather than piles.

Wish me luck. . .


All of this is extremely ironic considering that my day job is all about keeping other people organized.

Comments

[wyldlingspirit.livejournal.com]

You need more than luck. You need Flylady!

[qos.livejournal.com]

I worked with her book for a while, but don't remember what she had to say about organizing a several-foot deep paper avalanche.

[wyldlingspirit.livejournal.com]

http://www.flylady.net/pages/focus_on_pc.asp

Excuse me if this isn't quite what you're looking for. I'm a tad drunk.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Most of the material isn't relevant to my particular situation. (I don't hoard phone books, newspapers, unread magazines, etc.) She doesn't address a lot of the stuff I do keep.

But thank you!

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I am told many people's personal lives are the opposite of what their occupation is. T's job is to single-handedly manage inventory and keep an automotive part's room organized. She is aces at her job and can lay her hands on things the guys can all search for and never find. But at home, you should see her disorganization. I'm forever helping her find things she's misplaced...some of which she hasn't yet missed. If her head wasn't attached to her body, she'd lose that, too! LOL!

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

You do it the same way you said you'd handle the house: one paper at a time.

[oakmouse]

You use up your organization-fu at work and don't have any left when you get home. Like when I worked as a cook and hardly ever picked up a pan at home because I'd been cooking all day, damnit.

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

Scanner. Go electronic. Subscribe to a backup service.

Flylady. Yes - I like the 15 minute approach with a timer. I have thrown out bank statements from before I married the hob in a great Flylady purge. I now only keep about three months worth of paper mail in a large wooden box after I cull out the recycle from it. I pull out things I might want to keep on a more permanent basis (mostly personal b-day cards and such) and then have the whole kit and kaboodle shredded at the TV station 'shred day'. Much less headache than opening and filing. I do my bill pay mostly via the net so that paperwork and review is pretty non-paper intensive. This was a very freeing move and the garbage frustration has decreased in the house significantly. (Hob does nothing in this arena and has learned uselessness in the process. However, he can be counted on doing shred day when the alternative is shredding a large pile of dox!)

[qos.livejournal.com]

I like this insight. It certainly makes me feel less guilty!

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder about the scanner, Jill.

Mine won't talk to my new laptop and I need to replace it, but one of the back-burner projects I've had is scanning a lot of the clippings that have accumulated. I'd been thinking of it in terms of art only, but I bet that would be a good solution for many of the articles as well.

I shred bills immediately after I pay them, especially when I have electronic confirmations of payment. It's needing to organize the things I *do* keep (like the tax records, and things like my divorce paperwork) that's the big issue.