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.