Friday, January 30, 2009

Paper Problems

It has taken me a month to tackle my weekly "problem area" -- my paper problem. I was inspired by Org Junkie's Monthly Organizing Round-Up.

Before I started, I gathered all the stashed paper from around the house.


We purchased a new file cabinet a few months ago to add some storage space to our ever-growing filing needs.


However, I never seemed to have time to organize it properly and it quickly became another "junk" drawer.


I also have several other attempts at organization that never worked like I was hoping. This little plastic drawers-on-wheels was one attempt, but it didn't worked right, and the clear sides allow the mess in the drawers to leak a feeling of chaos.


And this little desktop file box was suppose to help, but I could never keep it neat enough. Again it just left a visible feeling of disorganization.



Here is the reward of a month's worth of effort.


It could use a little more purging, but at least the paper is under control (and hidden) again. The new file cabinet provided the space to hold all our files for the business and personal finances.


I also learned a thing or two about the weaknesses of my system while reading all sorts of organization articles online this month. The biggest change to my system was the addition of filing space for articles that I keep about my personal interests: health, food, parenting, etc. This should help keep miscellaneous papers piles to a minimum.


The old plastic file drawers-on-wheels and our old black file cabinet will be converted into other storage space for crafts, office supplies and kids activities. But that is a project for another day.

Now all I have to do is keep up with the filing.

21 comments:

Mandi | No Apathy Allowed said...

Looks great! I'm a filing fanatic, but have only recently got things under control here in Germany. Congratulations, and I'm sure you'll have plenty of motivation for the upkeep since it looks so lovely!

Christy said...

Thanks! I can only imagine how challenging it must be to get things organized after moving across the world.

Hope you are enjoying Germany! I've had fun following you on your blog! I need to be better about posting comments. =)

Tammy said...

All I can say is WOW!
You really did an amazing job! You should be very proud of your accomplishment! Enjoy your new organization!

Erin said...

WOW! What an inspiration! My papers are CHAOS... I need control... lots of it... especially contemplating the idea of homeschooling...

Heather said...

That was alot of work, great job it looks awesome.

Carey said...

Excellent job, and that's a beautiful filing cabinet!

Anonymous said...

Good job! Looks great :)

Unknown said...

Looks great! I like your filing cabinet :)

Christy said...

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement! I had to call my hubby in to help wrap-up the job -- he took out the recycling and helped with all the shredding.

The file cabinet was a great find on clearance at Staples.com. I love it.

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

Wow, great work! I like you file cabinet too. I had a junk drawer that looked like yours too; I just cleaned it out finally! I still have another set to go though.

BlueCastle said...

That looks really great. Very impressive. :)

The Masked Mommy said...

Wow! You know, that's exactly the kind of thing that stops me. I really want to file, but the drawer is full of junk. I feel like everything is so intertwined that I have trouble focusing on one area at a time. How did you find the inspiration? It looks amazing! Great job! I'm sure you feel fan-tast-ic!

Christy said...

I was so determined to join in Org Junkie's carnival! I just threw all the junk in a box and started on the papers. One thing at a time ...

Thanks for everyone's enthusiasm! You are my inspiration! (wasn't that a song from a Doris Day movie???)

Ash and Toby said...

Hey! Love your filing cabinet!! It's pretty!! Looks like a nice piece of furniture and not a file cabinet!

Good job!!

Anonymous said...

What an amazing job! That's great!

Anonymous said...

Great job! I still have to work on my filing.

Krisi and Adam said...

Great job! Love how you have your to be read articles sorted out. I just recently realized I get WAY to many magazines, so I have just been taking the one or two articles I want out and taking the magazines to work for others to read.

Lori said...

You did an Awesome job!!! It looks great!!!!

Laura said...

Whee! Look at you go girl, I'm so proud of you!!

Christy said...

Thank you, everyone!

And thank you especially to Org Junkie for stirring up the motivation to tackle this!

Heidi Boos said...

WOW! This looks amazing. I love the look of the large filing cabinet. What a great accomplishment!!