Home Filing System Part 3

Now, take each stack, put it into a hanging folder, give it a label, and put it in your storage area.

Remember, NO misc. folders. They are WAY too easy to start using as a catch all for stuff you don't want to deal with :)

Here is a tip for your monthly bills. I have one folder labeled "bills" instead of a folder for each household bill that we pay. Each month after I pay the bills, I record the check number and date I mailed the payment on the reciept portion and file all of these in the "bills" folder. At the end of the year, I dump it all in file 13. That way we have record of our payments and can look back and reference how much we are spending, if needed.

Now your home filing system is complete.

Home Filing System Part 2

Get all of your loose papers.

Separate them into piles according to type. You can make this as specific as you would like. For example: you could make one big pile of health insurance documents or you could make one pile of health insurance documents for each person in your family.

When you are done, stick a Post-It (or a scrap of paper) on top of each group and give it a label.

Some groups you might have: health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, bills, receipts, work related documents, taxes...

NO misc. piles ALLOWED...give everything a label.

Home Filing System Part 1

A home filing system is a MUST, for everyone!!! Here is how to start:

Get you some of these:

and put them in this:

or this:

or even this: (whatever fits your needs and your storage abilities)

See, that wasn't bad, was it???

Organizer vs. Mommy

Each Wednesday evening, I load up my boys (and all of their essentials) and take them to Gigi and Pop's house. I return Thursday afternoon to pick them up, all refreshed from having some time off. I love Thursdays!!!! Sometimes I scrapbook, sometimes I lay in bed, sometimes I nap, sometimes I shop...mainly, I do whatever I want to do.

After I drop the kids of Wednesday night, I return home and quickly take care of any loose ends at the house. I don't want any tasks to be hanging over my head on MY Thursday.

Last night, I had this small little issue as I was picking up the house.

There sat the Lego zoo/forrest/farm from earlier in the day. Big Brother and I worked so hard to create it and to keep Little Brother from destroying it. What to do, what to do??

My organizing side says, "Knock it down, pick it up, return the Legos to the closet, and vaccuum in it's place."

My Mommy side says, "We worked too hard on it, it brought so much joy to Big Brother, and he will be devastated if he comes home and it is gone."

Orgainizing side says, "He won't even remember."

Mommy side wins today. It's probably going to drive me crazy sitting there in the floor all day today and maybe he won't even want to play with it when he gets home, BUT.... he just may and Big Brother and Little Brother are more important then my floors :)

Helping Out My Man (and selfishly, myself)

My sweet husband was notorious for leaving his "pocket stuff" all over the house. As soon as he walked through the door, he would start emptying out his pockets and leaving a trail of his stuff that spread from the backdoor all the way into our bedroom. It was driving me CRAZY, not to mention the fact that the next day he couldn't remember where he had laid his keys, school badge, cell phone, extra change, etc. I had to come up with a solution....

I purchased this cheap little resin bowl from Hobby Lobby (during one of their 50% off sales). It was important to me that his little bowl fit in with the rest of our decor since it would be sitting out for the world to see 24/7. I placed his bowl in our desk unit just inside our backdoor. Each day, he comes home and promptly empties all of his belongings into his little bowl. Now, I'm not going crazy finding his stuff all over the house and he isn't wasting time in search of his goods. There they are. Right there in their own little spot. Nice and neat.

Here is his bowl.

Here is another option.

Confessional

(just a warning...this may shock you)

I have this area of my house that is complete chaos (hey, I can't have it all together). I have organized it a million times, but it just goes right back to looking like a dump. It is so easy for me to let things pile up here. I just close the door and block it out. (I totally believe everyone has an area like this...fess up!)

Here it is (you might want to sit down for this). Look closely and you will find a little bit of everything.

building suspense





building suspense

There are lots of things wrong with this situation

1. We haven't been able to put our cars in the garage in years.

2. It's like a maze trying to get in the house. You could totally trip and kill yourself on something.

3. We have to keep our garage closed, because HELLO!! we can't have people knowing about our little secret dumping ground.

4. We have no back door friends. Everyone must come in the front door for reasons #2 and #3.

5. It stinks to have to run out to the car (with the kids in tow) in the pouring down rain (especially when there is another option). There is no choice but to get drenched.

6. It stinks having to get the ice/snow off the cars in the winter because they weren't protected in the garage.

7....I could go on and on.....really.....

So, one of my goals is to get this situation under control this summer. I even went to great lengths to have a guy come out and draw a plan for shelving to help me get it together...

stay tuned...I hope to have "after" pictures....

what's your area????

Space Saving Book Shelves

These adorable shelves are the perfect solution if space is an issue. After putting a crib, dresser, chest, and rocking chair in my youngest son's room, there wasn't enough room for a book shelf. I purchased these from Pottery Barn Kids and they are perfect. These can be used as wall book shelves or they can be turned the other way and used for a wall ledge. If you know someone who is good at building, I am sure these little babies could be made quite easily. Only down side: they don't hold very many books. My 3 year old has a large book shelf in his room that I use to store the majority of our childrens' books on, but I wanted my baby to have a few in his room as well.

Forget what your Momma told you...

Don't clean out from underneath your bed!!!

Well, ok, DO clean it out if all you see is dust, socks, some toys, or maybe some sippy cups full of old milk/juice (yep, been there and done that one!).

However, don't feel like there is some unwritten rule about not storing things under your bed. This area is a GREAT spot to store things. We have a king sized bed, so it has lots of space under it for some great storage. Under here we store the leaf for our dining room table, a container of keepsakes, and my husband keeps his magazines and books under his side. I have even utilized beneath Wade's crib for storage. My husband keeps his pocket knife collection here and I use it to store our rolls of wrapping paper. William doesn't have a bed skirt on his bed, so, unfortunately I can't put anything under it (cause I am NOT a big fan of letting the stuff under your bed(s) show).

So, I give you permission to start cramming stuff under your bed. Well, not really cramming...it should still be neat! Take advantage of the extra storage space.

***There are great containers out there that are made for the sole purpose of being placed under your bed.

Car Survival Kit

I remember my Dad telling me years ago that you could learn alot about a person by looking in their car (by this one statement of his, you may be able to tell where I learned most of my organizational strategies). For whatever reason, that stuck with me and, for the most part, I keep a tidy car because of it. Having kids makes that more interesting because my car is always littered with sippie cups, wipes, clothes, shoes, etc.

So, here is my plan...

I got this cute little organizer from here. Might I add that I got it for FREE from my party sales. I filled it with some of William's favorite things so he could have a stash in the car.

It folds up and ties so cute.

I put it in this little tote (which I also got for FREE) and filled it with more essentials that I always seem to need in the car (a sippy cup, band-aids, napkins, hand sanitizer, bug spray, and some books).

I placed it between the carseats so William could reach it.

Now I am ready for whatever comes my way (in the car, that is) and I hope this will prevent stuff from floating all over my car. I also placed an empty tote in the floor. I am going to use this for trash and/or for items that need to be taken in the house.

So, find you a cheap/cute container and create your own car survival kit.

In case you were wondering...

I did it. I cleaned the attic, that is.

My OCDness won this time. After sitting in trainings for 2 days straight I have been itching to tackle a project. I don't do well with sitting and listening. I like to do and be productive. I thought about it all day today. Tried to push it to the back of my mind, but I couldn't. I just had to climb up those unstable stairs to arrange, rearrange, sift through, toss out, and label.

I played this afternoon and then got everyone fed for dinner. The whole while, I was making my plan in my head. Will took William out to play some ball in the yard and I put Wade down for his evening nap. I figured that I would have exactly one hour (the length of Wade's nap) before I would have to go "on-duty" again. I moved the monitor into the garage so I could listen for my sleeping prince and then I started in on it.

Boy was it HOT!!!! When I get in organizing mode I become as strong as an ox. I moved around boxes and furniture that were, undoubtedly, more then my weight. I stacked boxes, carried things up and down the attic stairs, and made a Good-Will pile and a trash pile. I divided the attic into sections and put the most frequent used boxes in the front and the seasonal/memorabilia items in the back. Then, I made labels for each section so anyone (ummm...say, my husband) who enters our attic will know exactly where to find or put things.

I did it in an hour and it felt SO good...got that one out of my system :)

Here are some after pictures (I CAN NOT believe that I didn't think to take BEFORE pictures. Trust me, there is a huge difference.)

Too much of a good thing is bad...take it from me

So, I have never been diagnosed by a doctor, but if you hang around me for about 2.5 seconds you will notice some OCD tendencies. Yes, I like things to be very organized and it's even better when they are clean, BUT...I also like clothes and linens folded a certain way, I like my desk items to be nicely in line with the edge of my desk, I have a thing with angles, I like to keep my email inbox and trash folder empty, I like all the light switches on a panel to be flipped the same direction, and the list of my weird obsessions goes on and on...

About a year ago, I was over it!!! Not really over it. I had the desires to do all of these things (and more), but I was SO tired of feeling like things had to be a certain way. Don't get me wrong, I love having my life together and I love being efficient because of my orderliness, but sometimes I wanted it to be ok if I left school with paper on my desk and emails in my inbox. So...I shared all of this with my doctor and he wrote me a little prescription :) I refer to my little pill as my "keep me calm medicine". It really started to kick in about 6 months later and I feel like a completely different person (and most people around me can tell a difference...now, I am by NO MEANS a SLOB nor have I become unorganized, or have I lost the desire to be organized, but I am a ton calmer).

Well, I ran out Thursday evening...by this morning (when the pharmacy opened back up) my head was swimming and I have been in a fog for the better portion of the day. To say I have been on EDGE tonight is the understatement of the year. I am waiting for my medicine to kick back in and in the meantime I am frantically running all over the house obsessing over everything. I am resisting the urge, with all my might, to climb into the attic and clean it out TONIGHT!!!!

At this point, I think I better just go to bed because I am driving myself crazy and I am pretty sure I am doing the same thing to my hubby (and I have been less then patient with the kiddos tonight). So, I am hoping to feel back to normal (my new normal) tomorrow...otherwise I am going into the attic...

Like His Mommy

So, William, my three year old, is very much a typical firstborn. He already likes to keep things nice and tidy, he thinks it is absolutely essential for everyone to follow all rules, and he can't stand a mess (and I have NO idea where he got this from).

Little background info: I have this thing with the cushions and pillows on our couch. I like for them to be nice and fluffy and I like for two pillows to be on each end of the couch. Don't know why...I just like it that way. Keep in mind, I have never mentioned this to anyone in my house. This is something I do...one of my little rituals, if you will.

So, the other day William and I come home from school. I am, as I typically do, putting up our stuff and getting William's afternoon milk. From the den, William proclaims, "Mommy, somebody's been messing with our pillows!" The pillows are scattered about all over the couch. William quickly runs over and places two pillows on each end, nice and neat next to each other, then says, "Our Daddy has been messing up our pillows again. Now, they are all better. Does that look better, Mommy?"

Yep, it does William...it looks PERFECT!!!!

Here's my sweet little man!!!

Fav #5- Shoe Box Containers

No, not actual shoe boxes. I'm talking about the plastic clear containers that are about the size of a shoe box. Love them! These can be found virtually anywhere and are extremely cheap. Great for small items such as: note cards, Play-Doh, kitchen utensils, batteries, craft supplies...you name it! Of course, don't forget to label them!!!!

These are in our desk cabinet. This is my card/gift area. Top one holds our note cards. Top left: left over goodie bags and small treats from parties (yep, I keep the leftovers...you never know when you might need a cute little bag or treat for someone). Bottom left: gift tags. Top right: bows. Bottom right: ribbon

Top container: household safety items (electrical outlet plugs, corner bumpers, cabinet locks, etc). Bottom container: every single card that has ever been given to William. (I have NO idea why I think I have to save all of his cards, but I do...and that is VERY much unlike me...)

So, that concludes my Favorite Containers series. :)

Fav #4 Drawer Compartment Containers

Whew, been an entire week since my last post...sorry :( All in one week- school ended, my classroom had to be packed up, we celebrated William's 3rd birthday, we put together a monster of a swing set, and then celebrated my 26th birthday...I am exhausted again just thinking about it.

anway...on to my 4th favorite container

Drawer xompartment containers are great because...

-you can buy them in a variety of sizes

-they can be made from wood, plastic, or coated metal (and you can sometimes find them in a variety of colors)

-they can be extremely cheap (you can find these in 2-packs at the Dollar Store)

-they define the space within a drawer

-they prevent loose items from rolling all over the drawer when you open and close it

-they make drawers very visually pleasing

My make-up drawer

Just added one little container for my toothpaste.

These little babies are great for socks.