I have been having MAJOR issues getting a handle on all my paperwork lately. There is just SO much and not enough time in the day to actually organize it!! Lisa, a fellow blogger and friend, is a professional organizer and has shared a chapter of her eBook with us so that we can all get a better handle on our paperwork :) Enjoy!
As a professional organizer I find that the number one daily organizational challenge for women is getting a handle on their paper.
I, as well as many of my clients, find that setting aside dedicated time is half the battle in getting paper files tamed. ~ You know, like past tax returns, manuals and safe worthy documents.
However, few people truly have a handle on their daily papers.
A glance at the typical kitchen counter reveals: coupons, bills and school notes, along with the directories that seem to multiply overnight. Additionally there are the school calendars, items you are saving to scrapbook…someday, etc.
This daily paper is NOT clutter. If you file it, you’ll forget it. So what can you do?
It took me 6 months of refining my systems to make a solution that has worked for me and my clients.
My active papers are now divided in 3 places: a weekly basket {I call it the Sunday Basket}, a counter top filing system and drawer filing system.
Maybe you’re where I was the day I had my mommy meltdown. Let me share with you Chapter 7…
The Sunday Basket is an idea born out of a major mommy meltdown I had when my babies were babies.
I was completely overwhelmed with paper and could not get a handle on my life! I waited until the babies went to bed and took EVERYTHING into the family room to organize all my paper.
Let me set the stage for you… My 2 year old {later to be diagnosed with MAJOR add child} was in the troughs of a horrible asthmatic period of his life which involved hospital trips.
His baby sister was a dream… but wanted mommy all the time.
My business was BOOMING. What I didn’t have was a plan. I was putting out fires left and right. I was afraid I would miss something… and never know what I missed.
So into the family room went all of my business papers PLUS my kids medical, adoption, and household to do’s.
I had sorted my mountains of paper and files into piles before. The problem would come when the babies woke up, or hubby came home and I hurriedly scooped my beautiful piles into a mountain again.
Every time I had a few minutes to tackle a project, it would take me that long to FIND it! Nothing was getting done.
I searched high and low in office supply stores and discovered these slash pockets. I brought them home and put each pile into a separate slash pocket.
These slash pockets turned my paper chaos into about 30 little contained piles. This time when I collected my slash pockets I had 30 pockets in a nice stack and could more easily find each project I needed when I needed it.
Now at least when I had 15 minutes to do something, I could find a slash pocket and be productive again.
I repeated this each week until I realized… there was an easier way.
The Sunday Basket
Sunday is the one day I use to plan my next week. For you it may be Monday, or Friday, or you might not have a day.
You need a day! For me it’s Sunday.
Not every paper in your life can be filed. Yep, I said it. Some papers are just – papers. They will leave your home before you could file them!
Any slash pocket that did not have something in it that needed to be done before next Sunday got put in the Sunday basket.
This allowed me to put current projects I was working on aside for one week, but not lose the project! Everything was together in the slash pocket and accessible if I needed it.
My Sunday Basket became my “soft to do list”
Examples:
I had ideas for an event in March, but it was January.
I had pieces for a newsletter I was going to make in 10 days.
I had school forms to fill out for the kids that were due in 2 weeks.
Blogging ideas
Information for an upcoming parenting seminar
A new magazine
Articles I needed to read for my kid’s diagnosis.
The key to the Sunday Basket is that you have to go through everything in the basket EVERY Sunday!
Sanity and Beauty!!
Ohhhhhh! The glory of baskets!! My husband no longer saw paper piles a mile high! I could grab an item from the Sunday Basket and get it done!!
Soon you will sort school papers right into the Sunday Basket if it can wait until Sunday.
The Sunday Basket frees your mind from worrying that things will get done and allows you to focus your energy on what you need to get done.
It’s true, no matter how electronic your life has become, you cannot get away from paper.
10 Steps to Organized Paper walks you step by step through tackling your past piles of archived paper to the mail you just brought in from the box. Click here to view more details
So, what are you waiting for? Get started tackling YOUR paper monster one step at a time!
Lisa is a Cincinnati mom who has struggled the last 12 years to give her kids the best education, food and treatments money can buy. Raising special needs kids is taxing emotionally, relationally, financially and physically. Her dream is to break down the walls isolating special needs families and providing them with information to help them achieve their goals.
Lisa blogs at Warrior Mama “Helping busy moms…Manage All Mama’s Assets”. Lisa also shares her organizational tips on her blog Organize365: Helping Busy Mama’s organize their busy lives.
{ 0 comments… add one now }