A Day In My Life

I know at least one person who will simply not re-read a book. Once read, out it goes. I, on the other hand, have re-read many books multiple times. I originally read Gone With The Wind the summer I was fourteen, and I still enjoy the book. But I also enjoy buying new and used books. My husband and I have been known to spend a fair amount of money for half priced books, and we have to be careful not to go over budget. I haven’t bought any new books in a while now, but last summer I found a huge collection of paperbacks on Ebay that I did get. I’m still working my way through those.

I ordered and received Maria Gracia’s My Oh-So-Organized Filing System. Yesterday, Jay and I completely emptied our filing cabinet, and took everything into the dining room. He got one of our plastic packing crates for trash, and one for items needing to be shredded, and we set to work. We put the filing system’s labels on file folders, according to our specific needs. Then we went through every single hanging file, file folder and sheet of paper we own. We discarded enough to fill our trash crate, and put some into the shred bin. Everything else went into appropriate folders. The process took six and a half hours, and we were exhausted by the time we finished…but now, we can literally put our hands on any single piece of documentation in seconds. It is so worth it to have spent the time. The system is easy to use, as we discovered today when we had a few stray items to file. I put labels on three drawers of the filing cabinet until we know where each category is by practice/use. The fourth drawer is for notebooks for my job, which were taking up floor space until this morning. I felt a huge sense of relief when I realized that nine years of tax documents are arranged by date order, newest first, in one single folder that is not bulging, with paper falling out of it. That was when I knew this system is a keeper. The extra file folder labels that we do not need currently are stored for future use, as our needs change. This is one more area of disorganized clutter we no longer have to deal with, and it is so welcome.

I have found several websites that I read often for tips on saving money and keeping things organized. I thought I’d share them, and I will update the list from time to time:

The Simple Dollar
Being Frugal
Get Organized Now
LifeHacker

I made a comment to a friend recently that perfectly sums up what is happening with regard to getting settled in our home. I said, “It’s just like the nesting instinct expectant mothers get…without a baby.” Jay is on Spring Break this week, and when he is not studying for a test coming up next week, he is unpacking, cleaning, and working in the yard (once it dries out; we’ve had some rain.) Yesterday, he unpacked five or six large plastic crates and several boxes. It is so nice not to have to walk around those.

Speaking of babies….Lauren just called and said her visit with the OB/GYN went well. She had a sonogram, and her due date is October 20. She had thought it would be in December, and I thought it would be in November. The baby is doing well, and in several more weeks, we will know its gender. Dylan and Ryan both have well-child checkups (and shots for Ryan) today.

Last summer, not long before we started working on buying our home, I decided it was time to get organized. I wrote about making a household notebook. That was the beginning of an ongoing (and surprisingly pleasant) process. I have decided to turn my attention to the paper that comes into the home. There is a constant flow of paper and mail in every household, to one extent or another. Maintaining control of this flow is imperative if the goal is to get organized and stay organized.

I have set up a filing system in our home to manage the bills, household records and other documentation that needs to be retained. The bills go into a cubby on my desk as they arrive, and the receipts for them are filed in a folder as they are paid. Any correspondence that needs immediate attention is dealt with promptly, and all of the documents related to the home itself are in an (ever) expanding file of their own. I do not let mail just sit on my desk or the nearest flat surface for days on end. It is much easier to just “do it” and get it done. All paper that does not need to be kept is recycled. Yes, it demands discipline, but I find a few minutes per day is really not too difficult. Besides, this system eliminates the “now, what did I DO with that piece of paper I had last week?” syndrome. When I cleaned out and organized my desk yesterday, I made sure my husband knows where to put the bills and other mail needing attention. He has been responding very well to my efforts to stay on top of things, which makes our home much less stressful.

This summer, I decided to get better organized. I got tired of not being able to find my manuals and user guides for our appliances, few though they were. I got a few supplies together:

– a large looseleaf binder
– page protector sheets
– a zippered pouch for pens and small items
– dividers for the binder
– lined paper for extra notes

Then I set to work. I gathered all of our aforementioned manuals and user guides and tucked each of them into sheet protectors. Now if I need to refer to one, I know just where to find it.