I have always had a ‘project’ on the go.
Home improvement. Furniture building. Getting pregnant with a ‘blue’ one. Painting my nails a different colour every week.
All very noble pursuits.
However, although it has been a wild ride and quite entertaining, my current project of contracting weird and wonderful illnesses and collecting medications along the way and getting to the point where the only thing I am actually fucking allowed to eat is the tips of radishes (and I hate radishes), is getting a little old.
So I have a new pursuit, a hobby, hopefully it will become a PASSION.
Paper.
Oh. My. Fucking. GOD, how does a family of five accumulate so much of it? Every day. Every single day a pile appears on my dining table. The coffee table. The floor. Everywhere.
School notices. Forms. Letters from teachers. Specialist referrals. Therapists and service providers notes and reminders. Drawings. Award notices, work schedules, shopping lists, cleaning lists, lists of lists. Bills. Bills. Bills.
And junk mail. I pink puffy heart junk mail.
It is a sickness.
So this weekend, while I sit amongst the piles of papers with the recycling bin, folders, shredder and a metric ton of chocolate (shhh, it is medicinal) trying to get some sort of order in one aspect of my life, I ask you, my wonderful all knowing internetz:
HOW do you keep your paper contained and organised?
{you can answer here in the comments or on your own blog with purdy pics of your awesome paper prowess, just remember to come back and put a link in the comments so I can come and have a look see.}
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Coming from a very disorganized person who is diary obsessed.
I Write everything down in the diary when it comes in. (currently i have a Master Plan Diary from http://www.milestonepres.com.au which has room for 5 family members. but i also have my eye on the OTI diary from http://www.oti.net.au. which has what the master plan one doesn’t – shopping lists etc.)
Paperwork is another story – Most gets thrown on top of DH desk for him to deal with, or on top of the kitchen table. – Important paperwork (birth, marriage cert, passports etc go into a black folder that most if the time i can find easily if i need it). – School newsletters go in the back of my diary and after a month i take them out and file them. as soon as they come in (every 2nd tuesday) i sit down and write down all of the things that are coming up and take down any notes that i need to remember.
Good luck. and looking forward to reading what others have to say.
NicoleB´s last blog ..Friday September 18th 2009
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simple .. circular filing system
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If I could help you, i would not need truckloads of wine (my chocolate) to deal with it. it’s a never-ending nightmare. The irony is whenever I do clean it up I throw out something I need!
dizzymum´s last blog ..Something for nothing (and the zoo for free)
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It’s going to sound all very Martha Stewart…Which I’m not…I’m more of a Martha Stewart on Crack. But I have a BIG ASS FREAKIN’ basket that holds all the school shit she brings home. All that shit I’m supposed to love and cherish for years to come…All goes in a very attractive, and on sale, Pottery Barn basket in the living room. 4 times a year I got through it and keep the stuff that will embarrass her when she’s older.
Minivan Soapbox´s last blog ..Why Girls Use More Words Than Boys
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I have a few things:
1. a recycling bag always on the go (for the junk mail)
2. a shredder (for the stuff with identifying info)
3. an accordion filing system which includes one year’s worth of bills and statements plus all the important docs
Absolutely everything that needs eventual attention I take to the computer and enter into Google Calendar and Google Tasks – and then it gets shredded or filed depending on importance.
I love paper and notes so I always keep a super nice quality notebook with me at all times, but those piles of crap need to be constantly managed. Good luck!
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Isn’t this why God invented the recycling bin?
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What is this organization thing you speak of?
Loralee´s last blog ..Prettying things up for the neighbors
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My recycling bin gets full from unwanted newspapers and junk mail, leaflets and pamphlets – it’s ridiculous the amount of crap we get! I should really put a “no junk mail” sign up, but I do like a few of the brouchures we get and I thought it might be rude to have a sign saying “No junk mail EXCEPT for ….”
Katie´s last blog ..One of the Joys of Having a Cat
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You’re really fucking BORED, aren’t you?
lceel´s last blog ..Friday Haiku – Five, Seven, Five
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I’m the opposite of someone you want to ask for paper organiZation (with a Z).
I’ll take a picture of my paper messes if you pay me, but not in that useless Australian money. That’ll just add to my paper mess.
Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing]´s last blog ..This? Is not OK: Equal Opportunity for My TV-Watching Experience!
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heh
try being deaf and having everyone write stuff down for you.
i have a recycle box with the label:
it’s not that i don’t understand you,
it’s just that I DON’T CARE.
maybe try a big arse notice board and a staple gun.
then you can shoot staples at people while they pin stuff to the notice board and their backs are turned.
Sammi´s last blog ..For Al
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Easy.
Bonfire.
Papers managed.
Lilacspecs´s last blog ..Werkzaam!!
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No idea really.
I write date- specific stuff on the calendar and pin pertinent notices to the pages.
I B-pay my bills as they come in (but adjust so they only pay on the due date).
i have a basket for current magazines interesting paper etc. (and give the old ones to my Nan’s nursing home – they don’t care if the Women’s Weekly is 2 years old)
I have an industrial-sized filing cabinet for filing away imporant bits of info
and I have a recycling bin.
My problem arises when I recycle the husband’s vitally imporant crap. … you see, my husband seems to think the end of the dining table is his own personal filing cabinet and gets all huffy when I ditch it into the bin each week. This throws him into a tizzy and each week we have the conversation about the table not being a good place to store stuff as we eat there fercrisake. We’ve been having this weekly conversation for almost 12 years now….. hmmm… for a smart bloke, he’s a bit slow on the uptake it seems.
Amanda´s last blog ..In perspective
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I have a filing cabinet but before you think “genius”, it’s only useful if you remember to file stuff and throw away the stuff that you don’t need.
If you’re like me, you’ll look at the filing cabinet occasionally and think that it looks useful and continue to leave all your papers and bits and pieces all around the house. This will result in one of two events (this is scientifically proven in a study of n=1 household):
The magic fairy will come and sort it all out for you so that at tax time, you have a neatly organised cabinet and you can find one item you need at a glance.
OR
The messy troll will sweep any and all bits of paper, including junk mail, birthday cards from relatives 20yrs old and possibly even the Bacardi Breezer carton into the filing cabinet.
Trust me, if the troll pays you a visit, you’ll swear never to have a filing cabinet again. Particularly if you have to move house shortly after discovering what he’s been up to. :p
Kay´s last blog ..Phoney Photo Pile #9
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It’s a losing battle. I have a whiteboard in the kitchen for the week’s schedule and reminders, and a corkboard for various paper bits and pieces. Recycling bin and shredder are great, but we still have piles and piles and piles of paper. And my daughter is turning into a writer and a hoarder. Haaalp….
Kate´s last blog ..Tweetle tweetle toot toot toot
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Google calendar, linked to my mobile phone
I try to return school notices the day I get them. If I can, I do it in the car before we’ve even left the car park.
Filing is an A-Z folder under my desk for accounts.
Annie and Heidi each have their own A-Z type folders for therapy stuff, also individual folders for artwork / crap they bring home from school kinder.
I love stationery shops and organizing stuff.
It also helps I only check the mailbox once a week so I only have to deal with the mail once a week. Parcels get delivered straight to our door and IMHO that is the only important mail
Edited to add – I worked out what the average fortnightly amount on each of our bills was and set up automatic BPays from our netbank account. I always overpay just a little which means comes Christmas week I can skip a payment and have a few extra $’s for myself. Sort of a way of saving $’s
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Junk mail goes straight into the recycling. I have set up containers for the kids’ artwork and for my own stuff. It’s remembering to use them that’s the problem!
Chookie´s last blog ..Where do the Children Play? 18 Tips for Child-Sensitive Garden Design
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Bills are attached to the fridge with magnets until they’re paid, then filed in the filing box thingy. Every two or three years I empty this and shred the oldest stuff until I can close the box without sitting on it. Shredded stuff is dumped into the recycling bin. Newspapers and catalogues from stores are read then dumped into the recycling bin. I don’t get notices from schools anymore so that’s one pile of stuff less that I have to deal with. Notices from Centrelink (L’s) and stuff such as bank statements are also filed until shredding day. Filing box is hidden in my wardrobe, out of sight. Shopping lists are tossed as soon as I get home with the goods. Not too much paper clutter around here. Which is a good thing as it leaves plenty of room for all the other types of clutter.
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I have a fireplace and I’m not afraid to use it.
witchypoo´s last blog ..Mah Drawahs
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Method 1: September 1977 – August 2009, Shove everything in a drawer.
Method 2: August 2009 onwards, shredder inside the door.
Xbox4NappyRash´s last blog ..Priorities
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hmmm, I had rather more to say about the subject than I thought, so I have written my own post about it!! It’s under filing!!
Sam´s last blog ..Filing
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I have a pile of box files helpfully labeled things like:
Bank
Health
Tax
Bills
Guarantees
The Husband’s Shit
(The husband has a less methodical approach to filing/ opening envelopes)
Womb For Improvement´s last blog ..Top Trumps
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I have far too much paper in the house and every so often, just chuck most of it out!
Jeanette´s last blog ..Supper smells good
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I hear you about the paper. I recycle things I’m not keeping as soon as I bring the mail in and as soon as I unpack my kids’ backpacks. I also have a paper recycling box under my desk, so I have a place to put paper I’m not keeping. I do get a paper backup up on kitchen counter though. I have to go through it every couple of weeks and throw at reams.
Stimey´s last blog ..I’m a Loser, Baby. (Kind Of.)
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Anything absolutely necessary for a long time in paper form goes into the filing cabinet, everything pertaining to taxes goes into a special box for that particular year, junk mail gets thrown away, and everything else gets scanned into the computer and then shredded.
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We have a shredder. I love feeding pieces of paper into it and watching little strips spit out. We use the shredded paper for packing. What we don’t use, we take to a recycling center.
Tara R.´s last blog ..SkyWatch Friday ~ 19
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Shred it, mix with kitty litter and its great for burying all those asshats that are organised.
GoaldeeBug´s last blog ..Thunderbirds are go!
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fucked if I know.
I mean really, if I had a clue, we would never have met and I wouldn’t be blogging!
MistressB´s last blog ..Check this out
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At present I am working on a life size replica of The David in our spare bedroom. Doing so, of course, with paper mache made entirely out of old bills, newspapers, eviction notices, subpoenas, and, just for added texture, the hair of several door to door salesmen. Doing this also gives me the ability to… endow David with more than the original, eliciting much admiration from all my friends. There is also a margarita bar set up close by. We party in there.
Krissa´s last blog ..Friendly visits, haircuts and poo
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My piles of paper sneak into a corner of my kitchen bench and the gap between the microwave and the wall.
We are building a new house soon and as well as a study we can lock the kids out of, I am also having a ‘pigeon hole’
style crap cupboard made in the kitchen.
Paper. It’s a rapid breeder! lol
shelly´s last blog ..I WANTED MY KIDDIE TO WEAR SLIPPERS AT SCHOOL, DAMMIT..
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Paper coming into my house stops at the kitchen counter. From there it is sorted – recycling, den, or garbage. Goodbye piles!
perpstu´s last blog ..Tattoos…I Haz Them
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We have a stack of “scrap paper” – meaning the backs of stuff already used – that is probably as high as my roof. When you figure it out, let me know, m’kay?
Ree´s last blog ..MM – Angst
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Control paper?hahahaha…….everything goes straight in the diary. all paper goes on the bench, then i crack it at the bench being messy and toss it ALL in the bin. Then I spend the next few weeks sitting around going- nooooo I never recieved that lol.
Joyce´s last blog ..School holidays!
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I’ve got my own method: use letters and numbers.
Every paper has its name (telephone bill) plus a letter (a, b, c … always continuated) and a number (month and day of arrival).
Altogether in an accordeon shaped folder and up to date.
If you don’t work on it daily, you’ll never get it
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I don’t cope well with the bills/notices/stuff that gets in the letter box, but we have “Australia post mail only” notice, so that helps a bit. Spotrick always chastises me about my “nest” of paper next to my lounge spot- I tend to let it mount for a few months before attacking. Then I file it all in only 3 folders: tax relevant, uni related and “can’t part with it”. These days all bills go to Spotrick for payment and I get my personal bills etc online. Newspapers all get piled on a small chest near the kitchen counter: what isn’t used for cat litter boxes and rubbish-wrapping goes into the recycle bin every 2 weeks. I have a pile of Medicare cheques that have never made it to the bank- can never face it when I see the queue/forget to take them/have another depressive excuse. At last they put the refunds in my bank account!! Yayy!! The shredder gets used if I remember- about 30% of the time. Once every 5 years I get a fit of magazine and paper-junk disposal, but the more I am nagged, the less I do!
Would you call any of this coping? I do, so there world!!
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OMFG, I finally caught up….round file darlin…DON’T read the shit, just toss it…read ONLY what you need to and then put it where it needs to go immediately. Plan B…make piles…read this tomorrow pile, read this when I have time pile, etc. and then about two weeks from now, THROW all of it out cause it is old now anyway!
Hotmamamia´s last blog ..Like a virgin….
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