Stress, stress, stress! Good grief, every which way you turn is to be greeted with more stress. There is no avoiding it with sick kids, overextended credit cards, work deadlines, and life in general making its daily demands. So, we need to find viable solutions to deal with all of these hassles. For me, minimizing some of the pressure as much as possible has been the best alternative. And I’m doing that by trying to simplify and streamline specific areas of my life.
During the past year I have worked on my home one room at a time by decluttering and reorganizing everything to its best possible advantage. My mission is almost accomplished and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. The last room to receive a complete overhaul and makeover is my office, which still looks like something from a disaster photo-op. But even in there I have started implementing small strategies to make this an easier transition than it looks. And it looks bad.
For example, last year I initiated a new filing plan that my longtime friend, Julie Stiles Miles (a/k/a The Book Lady), shared a couple of years ago in Bible study. We were discussing the book, Living With Less: The Upside of Downsizing Your Life, by Mark Tabb (Broadman & Holman), and how to get more out of life by choosing to live with less. (This is an excellent book that is scripturally based.) I was complaining about my resident paper monster and how I had several years of filing piled up waiting to be crammed into about a hundred or so folders. Julie’s solution was simple: Don’t do it.
Although I can’t quote her verbatim, I recall Julie saying something to the effect that folders should only be used for paperwork that will be used actively such as bank statements and medical records, and to segregate other types of business and client materials. But to assign a folder to every single piece of paper that will probably never be touched again is unnecessary and time-consuming. Julie recommended sorting the filing by year and then pulling out only the pertinent papers that needed folders. The rest could go into a box or expandable file folder with the year marked on it and set aside for easy access, if necessary. If I need to find something at a later date, I know exactly where to go and look for it.
This filing method has been so liberating! Such a simple solution to an overwhelming task. Now on to the next phase: organizing ALL of these cookbooks!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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2 comments:
Charlene! I'm still doing it! I'm actually in the process of switching from 2007 to 2008. I have a big blue Rubbermaid tub (with a lid) and an expandable bucket folder for each year in there. (I never put anything in this tub that I need to keep forever, just the stuff that I get to shred after 7 years.) I need to shred the year 2000 to make room for 2007. I have modified my organization of receipts a little. I have a binder clip in our kitchen drawer which I use to clip all receipts for a certain month. I add a 3x5 paper to the front indicating the current month. At the end of the month, I get a new binder clip, a new 3x5 paper and move the full clip to an out of the way location (for us, in the laundry room in one of those plastic drawer units.) It works great for us! In March of last year, my son's watch died - the watch I gave him for Christmas. I pulled the December receipts, found the one I needed and GOT A NEW WATCH on DAY BEFORE before the 3 month warranty expired. I knew exactly where the receipt was and I didn't spend ANY time organizing anything.
BTW, I have a new blog, check it out. http://pragmaticcompendium.wordpress.com/
If I post on this topic, I'll be sure and trackback!
I have a similar plan for receipts too. I use an expandable folder divided into months (originally used for monthly bank statements) and file the receipts for each month there. At the end of the year, I go through to see if any need to be pulled out for business or tax purposes and then clip the rest together by month and put in a large manilla envelope with the year on it. That also goes in the annual filing box :) I'm going to tame this paper monster yet!
PS - I've also been assigned an article for a major publication to write about how to create a "green" office. Perfect timing for my new goals! So if you or anyone else know of someone who has an eco-friendly office environment, or is in the process of creating one, please let me know.
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