I took a picture frame that I wasn't using, taped colorful paper to the glass, glued my labeled envelopes to that paper and that was it. My Labels are: Tax receipts (we itemize our taxes so these are all the receipts I need for that), Medical (Erik's Union reimburses us for most medical co-pays) Returns, and Household. It's in our laundry room so I can put the receipts in here as soon as we walk in the house. This isn't a recent project but I wanted to show you the bulletin board I made right before the boys were born to help keep track of important papers. 
The food coupons are no longer on this board, they're now in my newly organized coupon binder (no pictures). It's in our laundry room, so we see it every time we come in the house from the garage. We keep J's school calendar, bills that need to be paid, and other papers that we need to keep on hand on here.
The food coupons are no longer on this board, they're now in my newly organized coupon binder (no pictures). It's in our laundry room, so we see it every time we come in the house from the garage. We keep J's school calendar, bills that need to be paid, and other papers that we need to keep on hand on here. The next project was organizing my coupons. I had all the Sunday inserts shoved in an accordion folder with no method to the madness. So I went through them, threw out all the expired ones and clipped the good ones that we'd use and put them in picture sheet protectors (divided into 3 slots) in a binder. I also put some full page sheet protectors for our formula, BBB, retail, and Restaurant coupons.
The 3rd project took me the longest and its the one I'm most excited about. (Erik thinks it's hilarious that I get excited about organization). Our filing cabinet was a mess.
I hated having to file stuff in it - so I usually didn't and I'd end up with piles and piles of paper. I got fed up with it the other day and got to organizing. I switched everything from plain file folders to hanging file folders and as I did so I went through and trashed/shredded anything I didn't need (had 2 bags of trash when I was done). It was a messy project that took me 2 days to finish (mainly because I ran out of hanging file folders late the first night),
but it's now done and I love opening up the filing cabinet just to see how good it looks. 
Filing papers will never be a problem again. I LOVE it.Right now, I'm in the process of working on my "Home Binder". Where I keep all my important home info. I'm currently working on the inventory process - typing up what books we have then it's on to movies, CDs, electronics and pictures of everything in case we ever need it for insurance reasons.
*there will be a running list of my 52 projects on the side of the blog - I just have to come up with 52 ideas.
i love ideas on taming paper! i too love laura's challenge because it is meant to be more slow & steady like the tortoise rather than break-neck speed like the hare! and it's nice to have the encouragement to keep going. can't wait to see what else you have in store for the year!
ReplyDeleteGreat job. I have not graduated to the coupon binder yet! Mine are in a cancelled check accordion file that is bigger than a regular coupon holder, but small enough to fit in my purse.
ReplyDeleteI love to have all our papers in order! Great job and the boards are pretty too.
ReplyDeleteYay for organization! I love being orgainzed too, though I feel I am much better at it in my professional life than I am my personal life. One thing I did do recently was buy two big boxes for the girls. I then filled it with huge manila envelopes and labled them by year. I am filling them with all of the girls' things- random pictures, art projects, the letters they got from Santa, etc.
ReplyDeleteLove your wall frame with the envelopes, so creative!!
ReplyDeleteThe wall frame is a great idea!! I may be using a modified version soon :) Tackling the paper is Numero Uno on my list (Just found the 52 weeks project today...) and it's going to be one of the most difficult. I have relatively little but HATE to file (and I do it for a living!) haha! Thanks for the tips.
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