Anna Says - Hints For Keeping The Home Office/Study Tidy

Hints For Keeping the Home Office/Study Tidy

I am going to preface this post by saying this is not my thing. I am not very organised with bits of paper. I hate mail, I hate bills, I hate filing. I rely on Mr Cool to keep track of receipts, tax stuff, bill filing and all that mind numbing stuff. I am glad he does. Or I would not be faring well.


Paper organisation is just not a gift I possess. Not at all one of my strengths. Mr Cool and I  have very clearly defined jobs. He mows: I cook. He files: I plan menus. He puts air in the tires: I clean out the fridge. We are both happy with this arrangement (unless I misplace a very important piece of paper that we needed yesterday that I know I saw on the piano stool but one of the children must have used it to make a collage because I really really don't know where the heck it is now so shut up already).


But, over the past few weeks I have realised I need to take on some more of these kinds of things. Stuff gets lost if there is no system (in case you didn't know). Also, I am feeling swallowed up by all the stuff in my house. Now, I am not a hoarder, in fact, I am pretty good at getting rid of things. I am also particular about how clean my house is. I am not necessarily neat, but I am far from messy, ask my friends, they will back me up (hopefully). 


And I know that this may sound like an excuse, but we are growing out of our cute chamfer on brick. There is just not enough places to put stuff. I am about to go through my house and purge it of stuff I just don't use or need anymore, in the hope of finding more peace and less stress trying to find places to put all the stuff. 


I really like Peter Walsh. He has become a bit of an organisation guru of world renown. I like that he is an Aussie who has done good in the U.S. I like that Oprah likes him. I like that he is straight talking and gets good results. I also have a weird fascination about looking into other people's houses. Especially if they are messy houses. It makes me feel better. I want him to come and sort out my house, but it is not bad enough for that. Sigh. 


Anyway - back to the tidy desk thing...

Peter Walsh writes a blog. It is good. I follow it through my bbeingcool blog facebook page. He does make being organised look cool. In April this year, he wrote a post called, 'Five Ways To Keep The Office Stress Free'. Five things... I can do that...


Here is the basics of the post..


1) Label, Label, Label
Obvious - if things are labelled, you are going to save time when you need an item again. Peter is big on labelling things everywhere; the garage, the filing cabinet, the kitchen.
2) Invest in a good filing system
Ensure that the filing system gets a clean out at least once a year. I have a friend who gets excited about doing this. I would rather scrape the accumulated gunk from inside the fridge using my finger nails than do this.
3) Divide your office into zones
Have areas for mail, research topics, filing. Peter says you should have a clear space on your desk for working on one thing at a time. At the moment, we don't have a desk. I am not good with a desk, I just make piles and then they get left and then.... oh, it is not good. Instead, we have a cupboard. I am doing better with the cupboard.
4) Avoid Paper Clutter
This is my down fall. I make piles. Piles. Piles. Piles. I am not so good at dealing with paper once it crosses the threshold into the house. Sigh. 
5) Keep It Together
Peter recommends having folders with plastic sleeves inside to store things like warranties, menus and tourist attractions. I am good at this(phew).


For the full version of Peter's post .... Click . Just scroll right down to the bottom of the post, the original post is all about how to use a Dymo Labeller.


These five steps sound good. But I need a bit more structure than this... 


Daily

• Open mail, sort, then put into our inbox
• Throw out junk mail and envelopes

Weekly

• Sort through inbox
• Pay/sort bills

Monthly

• Filing
• Go through one file in the filing cabinet and remove old and/or unnecessary paper. (Shred before discarding)

It has been encouraging writing this post and realising that there are some things I am doing better than I used to. I think that having children means one has to that little bit more organised in every way. Which is a good thing, although I still manage to lose permission slips and forget shared lunches - sigh.

I now find myself in a new position where my children, being creative, have paper, paper and more paper 'mess' in their rooms. I need to start teaching them about how to avoid making piles and how to sort their stuff out. Thankfully they draw so many pictures that they don't really miss the dozens of pictures that I have to purge when they go to school.

Images from my Pinterest Board - Home Office