The Paper Tornado

Today was a Goldilocks kind of day.  Not the greatest, not the worst, but just right.  It started off with an exciting lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, meeting new people and hanging out with my sister.  Then I spent a couple of peaceful hours helping my sister out by decorating her classroom.  I got to utilize my newly improving crafty skills and take some quiet time out to myself.  I love hanging out with my husband and my family, but sometimes it's nice to just have a quiet moment to yourself. 

 

Then it was off to HuHot Mongolian Grill for another lunch :), Yeah totally stuffed myself, with some friends.  Followed by a movie, not gonna lie wasn't too thrilled at the idea of seeing Standing Tall, which was actually very good.  Total tear jerker.  I cried like five times, at least. 

 

Just when I thought the day was over my honey was like, "let's go do something."  I wasn't up for the bar so I suggested we do something else.  We decided on bowling and headed out to the alley up the street.  Unfortunately they were closed.  As hubby was opening up the trunk to put the bowling balls back in, he ripped the back panel with the handle off the car.  Hehehe.  It was kind of funny, but he was really upset and got real pouty like he always does.  We decided to save the night and MacGyvered the thing back on with duck tape, seriously no joke, and headed off to another bowling alley.

All in all I had a great day so when it started raining I wasn't phased.  Until I got home and tried to maneuver a stumbling honey into the house in torrential downpours only to get inside and stumble over piles of mail.  Couldn't set my purse down either due to piles of mail on all the surfaces just inside the door.  I mean I don't even know how there got to be so much mail everywhere.  It was like a huge tornado had run through the house and dumped paper everywhere.  Or an evil Leprechaun.  Yeah definitely and evil Leprechaun.  It was a crappy end to a lovely day.  It's no wonder then I decided it was time to get rid of the clutter and get organized.

 

 

 

Evil Leprechaun

7 Steps to Organize Your Paper Clutter

Step 1:  Set up a collection system into which all the paper that comes in the door goes into.  Shoe Box, check.  It may not look pretty, yet, but it will work in a pinch to hold all the junk that comes in the door.  Bonus, I found a cute little dish to put my keys, phone and other junk into that I also set on the first available surface just inside the door. 

I also took some time at this point to appoint a bag for trash and proceeded to go around the general area picking up all the paper and junk strewn all about the room and organizing it into trash, bills, and keep.  Nasty little Leprechaun. 

Step 2:  Set up a system for my "action" papers, AKA papers like bills that need attention.  This is good because I lost a couple of bills last week in the sea of papers and thought I had already sent them out.  Thankfully I was able to open them up and pay them online before they were past due.  Phew.  I know I'm behind the times, but I just can't bring myself to trust paying bills regularly online.  I'm afraid I'm stuck in the stone ages on this front. 

Anyway I decided on something that would be handy for storing bills, yet also slightly decorous so that I wouldn't want to throw it across the room when all those bills started piling up.

Here it is my lovely box for bills.  I also put my checkbooks, a calculator and some pens in for good measure.  Ooh note to self:  add some postage stamps and the address stamp as well.  Nice, now all my bill paying stuff will all be in one place so I don't lose it.  As my niece is always saying, "you lose everything."  In fact she even wrote this cute little note on the measurements I took for her dress so that I wouldn't lose them.

 Step3:  Set up a system for reference papers.  Okay I know what's a reference paper right?  She explains it as things you may want to keep, but that aren't that important at the moment.  Things like restaurant menus, etc.  Well at first I didn't think I would need this, but then I found a piece of paper with my sister-in-law's address and the combo to a lock I use for the gym and decided I needed one after all.  I thought this nice little picture binder would work out perfectly.  I had some photos in the front and open spaces in the back that I put the "reference" type papers into. 

 Moving right along.

Step 4:  Set up a filing system for your archive papers.  Check already done that awhile ago.  I have these wonderful binders that I file all the papers into.  One for bank statements, one for credit card statements, etc. and a great big box for important papers that haven't been filed yet.  The problem is I never end up getting to that box to "archive" stuff.  So I decided that my filing binders will need to be close to all the other paper systems and I will be eliminating the box of important papers all together.  This way I will file the stuff right away.  Crossing my fingers.  I will be going through the current box of papers another day.  I think I have put in my time for today.

The other three steps I did as I went along or will do tomorrow, i.e. taking care of back log, creating good habits and enjoying my clear countertops. 

All done, it looks amazing.  Definitely too clean to be my house.  Hopefully the Leprechaun doesn't come visit again tonight and undo all the work I just did.  Wish me luck.