Tracey Nelsen with My Heart and Home shares time and space saving solutions.
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Do you ever feel like paper could take over your house and your life? Don’t worry you are not alone! So many people who may be organized in other aspects have a difficult time organizing their paper. There are some easy solutions that won’t take a lot of time and space.
First of all, remember that we live in the age of the internet! You don’t need to keep everything. If you have moved a paper more than 3 times and still don’t have a place for it get rid of it (unless it is important to your future, then find it a home immediately!). Thoughts, stories, ideas, etc., can all be found again on the internet with a few quick clicks of your mouse! Don’t fill filing cabinets full of things that you will never reference again. Always remember that less is more. The less you have to take care of, the more time you have for things that you really want to do.
One easy solution to organizing mail and children’s paper is to have a family filing system. Create Family Central! Begin by creating a mail tray for each person in your family. Place them somewhere convenient for your family to readily check them for information. Each member of your family should have a tray with their name on it. These can be stackable trays that you buy at an office supply store or they sell very nice trays that are made of wood. You can use the filing system for invitations, things that need to be responded to, homework and other items that family members need to look over. This is a great way to teach your children responsibility. Teach them which tray is theirs and how to check it. Also, show them where your tray is and where to put things mom and dad need to respond to (i.e., school notes, permission slips, homework that needs to be signed, etc.). As a parent, you will want to check your child’s tray for homework, dates of events, etc. Next have a family calendar. Put your calendar near the family filing system. If a family member has something going they need to list it on the family calendar. This will help to keep your family organized and on the same page. Add a cork board for invitations/schedules/ and you have Family Central. For more information on Family Central go to www.myheartandhome.com and check out this month’s newsletter.
Learn how to sort your paper. Sort your mail as you bring it in the house. Keep a shredder by your garage door so that you can shred anything that has personal information in it and throw the other junk mail in the garbage before you even come into the house. When you bring in what is left immediately sort it into 3 piles: respond to, bills to be paid, and things to remember. Your “respond to” pile can be sorted into the family filing system. The items in your “bills to be paid” pile can be placed with your financial documents in one place. The Family Bill Book by My Heart & Home is a great filing system to keep all of your financial documents in one place. The final pile, “things to remember”, can be added to the calendar and then placed in the family filing system for future reference. Any remaining paper can be sorted according to which family member it relates to. Be sure to go through your family filing system once a week to purge any papers that you don’t need.
Encourage your children to go through their backpacks when they first walk in the door. Teach them how to sort their own papers. Put homework into their tray, or better yet have them complete it immediately and put it back into their backpacks ready for tomorrow. If your children bring home art projects, awards or other papers that you want to keep, put them in a plastic tote with their name on it. This is their keepsake box. At the end of the year have them go through their keepsake box and keep only the things that are most important to them. Create a file for each child in your filing cabinet. Label a file folder with the current year and put all of these papers into it. You only need one file per child per year. Keep it to a minimum. Trust me, your kids will appreciate that too! You can also keep these in a binder with their name on it.
Paper doesn’t have to take over your life. If you sort paper when it comes into the house and you have a place to put it, you will be amazed at how easy it is to overcome the paper peril!
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My Heart & Home is a local company, that offers workshops on how to get organized and products that are easy and fun to use.
For more information visit www.myheartandhome.com.
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