Chapter Thirteen
A few key sentences that got my attention:
“Categorizing helps to create order in your mind and your home.”
“Daily habits make a huge impact on managing clutter. Without routine, you’ll always end up with overwhelming piles.”
“Eliminate little pieces of paper! Let this be your organizing theme.”
I love being able to categorize my paper – pending, action & review, everyday reference, long-term reference, and vital records. I think this over view of how to look at the paper that enters our home is very helpful. I’ve heard this tip before and wonder why is it so hard to implement – Handle Paper Once. I am sure you have heard it too, can you mange to do it?
For the most part I can deal with mail, school papers, receipts and the like with the one touch rule, but some other papers tend to pile on my desk.
I honestly really love the my husband has the task of the main filer in our home. We do have an “in-box” spot and he will usually go through the box several times a month and file the papers where they need to go.
It works best for us, to have one person be the main filer, he knows categories that he uses and he also can tell him in a quick minute usually where something is. Divide and conquer – this is his area!
I mentioned our easy receipt box system in a previous post, it works really well for us. We each have our own box, so we can pile it however we want and we know, if I made the purchase then I will have the receipt.
Keeping special cards is one of my “things” and it is for most people. But realizing that we can’t keep everything is also critical in not becoming overloaded with so much stuff. I have a small plastic box where I can toss cards, trinkets and keepsake items that are small. Every now and again I will take a look through the box and either keep everything in it or perhaps I will decide there are things that I can part with since I’ve added more items. I try to keep it to just one box.
We do have boxes for each of our kids for items like cards and school work. We will periodically go through these boxes as well and weed them out of items that we do not feel are critical to keep.
I love the day of the electronic age for storing all things like phone numbers, email address and passwords! I admit, I do still love paper – like my Weekly Household Planner as well as writing notes, but keeping stuff all in one place and having the ability to share it with others easily like with ical and contacts is brilliant!
Consider these questions, answer them in your journal, comment here or you can leave your comment on the private Facebook page.
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What systems do you use to manage paper clutter in your home?
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What new ideas did you get in this chapter that you can implement?
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Are you one who saves everything or are you one who tends to lose or toss items that you need later?
I apologize for not having a video today, my week has been quite unusual and getting this post even up was a major accomplishment! :-)
