In my mind, it’s a part of everyone’s house… right?? Well, it’s definitely a part of my house, and a constant thorn in my side. Papers from every source possible threaten to overtake us.
Haylee and Wade’s papers alone are enough to drive me batty.
This is where my new love of decorating/organizing blogs comes in.
I read this post a while back from Leanne at Organize and Decorate Everything (She has 8 KIDS!!) and was inspired to get my papers under control! We have this dumping ground basket that all homeless papers and various other things somehow find their way to. It’s bad. It’s really bad.
It’s such an eyesore that I literally took off the enormous stack of stuff that was spilling out of the top of the basket for this picture! Isn’t that so very sad?
Things have a way of getting lost in there, so I sometimes try to put important papers on the fridge which ends up looking less than stellar after a while.
So O&DE suggested a file folder system with a folder for each person in the fam and one for main categories like bills and taxes. Of course, you do have to stay on top of it still in order to not end up with huge-basket-of-junk again.
So I went for it. I ordered a cutsey file holder thing from Current…
…and found folders clearanced at Walmart for ultra cheap-o. I think the package of 12 folders was $1.50 or $2.00. What’s funny is that when I looked up O&DE’s post just now I saw that I ended up buying the exact folders she had! Weird.
Sooooo…. drumroll please… here is my attempt to conquer the paper….
I have basic categories now, but I think I may have to add some more as I see how it’s going. I may do cute labels eventually, but for now I just wrote the label on a post it with a sharpie, then cut and taped it on. For some reason, I have a weird aversion to writing directly on folders like this. I guess I want to be able to have the option of changing my mind later about the label. :)
What do you think? Do you think I can keep it up?? Do you think the cute factor will help motivate me at all to stay on top of it? I know it’s sad, but I think because it’s cute it’ll be more fun to file stuff! :)
Don’t worry. I know I have a sickness.
I know what you mean about that perpetual pile of things. We have one too and every month or so I just go through all of them.
LOL.. just saw this post. Dan and I just went through our perpetual file! Ha ha.. he got into his organizing mood. He likes it all to be the same. I like to color code. Thankfully, we have a file cabinet that we set up exactly similar. It should greatly aid this busy life we all seem to lead. Great idea though! Totally love it, and wish I had seen it before Dan got involved..