Like I mentioned in this post, it’s a new year and my theme for 2012 is to streamline. I’m constantly, (and I mean completely constantly) looking to get our home organized and feel like I’m in control of the balance of our home, family, and life in general.
I grew up in a home that was very organized and super clean. Most of my closest friends are extremely organized and seem to have the answer to running a well-maintained home. One of my major struggles is to achieve this feeling!!! Every single day I feel like I’m falling short of how I would love my home to feel and function. And the first step to having a well designed home is to have it function properly and feel totally and completely comfortable in the space you call home.
I used to be very organized. And those who knew me when I worked full time, knew I liked to have all my ducks in a row, with files and folders for everything. It made/makes me feel so much more in control and ready to tackle the day. Then I had a baby. I’m not blaming my lack of ability to stay organized on the little bugger, but it did throw a wrench in my organizing skills. All of a sudden we had so much more in the way of “stuff” to organize and when I would normally take one of my days off to go through closets, files, etc., I wanted to spend all of my down time with him. I also had no space to start a project, leave it out to work on and come back to it when I had time. If anything was left out, one curious little boy seemed to find it and wreck havoc!
Last January, I was ready to get our home totally and completely organized. I vowed 2011 was going to be the year that I had everything uber organized. Really, there are few things that make me happier that an organized, well functioning space. It just leaves so much more time and energy to spend on the things that really matter. So I went after it. I tackled paper organization, closet organization, kitchen and bath organization, toy organization, garage storage…You name it, I worked on it.
Then we moved. And I found myself having to find a new way to organize in a new space. And while it is fun to try to tackle a new organization project, it’s been overwhelming. There is so much I want to work on design-wise here, but without feeling organized, I am reluctant to work on making things pretty. We have more space that we did in our last home, so to me, everything should be put away. But I’m definitely still working on how we function in this home. And now I have 2 little guys wrecking havoc on our home! I’ve got a LONG WAY to go.
So, mainly for my own selfish reasons, I thought I would start a new little project:
Organizing Your Home, One Step at a Time.
When my bff was visiting at Thanksgiving (one of the people in my life who is so extremely organized), she could tell I was overwhelmed with the project of getting everything put away and finding a place for everything in our new home. She told me, “Just take 15 minutes every day to tackle a project. It’s too overwhelming to look at this whole house and see where you should put your energy first. So just do a little bit at a time.”
So that’s my plan. And I am taking you along on the journey!
First up on the list. Paper clutter. It’s my arch enemy. I HATE all the paper that comes into this house. But, I want to look at every catalog that comes in the mail, shred mail that we don’t want but has our info on it, save those coupons…just in case. I’m totally the one to blame!
So I thought I would tackle my worst paper issue first…Receipts.
I have my fair share of receipts! I make a good amount of returns, so I need to keep a lot of receipts just in case we don’t need an item. I also have receipts we need to keep for our home improvements as well as anything we purchase for our rental property. And I need to keep receipts for my business as well. So needless to say, there’s a lot of receipts floating around!
I purchased this cute little coupon/receipt holder at CVS to hold my personal receipts that I felt I needed to save.
I labeled each section in alphabetical order.
And since I still can’t figure out how to make labels on a Mac, I just wrote one out in colors that coordinated with my cute orange file.
{If anyone reading this does know how to make labels on a Mac, please, please let me know!!! Even the Geek Squad guy had no idea.}
I plan on keeping this little guy in my car, so as soon as I make a purchase, I can file the receipt away under the appropriate letter. That way I will always have it in the car with me when I need to take something back and it’s not floating around the house.
For items that don’t necessarily have a manual, I have this totally unattractive, yet functional alphabetical accordion file. This gets stored in an office drawer.
If I have a receipt for an item that I have in Home Appliance Binder (more on that later), I staple the receipt to the manual so I know when and where I purchased it in case I have warranty issues down the road.
So that’s it. Nothing too earth shattering, or to aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it is a functional system. One that hopefully will be easy to maintain so I can finally spend more time tackling design projects :)
My plan is to tackle an organization project every week to share with you. Are you as excited as I am?!?!?!
On another note, I received a gift card to TJ Maxx/HomeGoods for Christmas, and I’m hoping to find a little time tomorrow in between running around for clients to stop in and hopefully find some things on my list! So hopefully I’ll have something fun to share from my trip!
Get another little organizer, just like that one, and keep it nearby in the kitchen someplace to collect coupons – for both retail and groceries – and immediately sort through mail, cut out what you need, and file coupons away as soon as they come in. I’ve labeled mine for things like grocery store, Costco, kids retail, Target, and my other usual hot spots. That’s my strategy!
That’s a great idea! I actually have that! That’s what gave me the idea for the receipts :) PS-making your chicken verde right now in the crock pot!!!
~Gina
ugh right there with you on the paper receipts… we have a crazy filing system (with the businesses we need it).. but what drives me crazy is the bills. So I have files for (personal and business).. when opening the mail they get filed immediately and then once a month we review and pay – then file away.