work in progress

Laura at Organizing Junkie inspired me to finally take care of this:

And I work/play/plan/relax here?

Her January round-up was for the filing cabinet. I want to start by saying that I love, love, love that all the round ups for 2009 are small projects. This I can do. Or at least try.

So... what would any self respecting woman do to conquer the above mess? #1 Join a round-up. =) #2 Buy a new computer!

Something as sweet (and fast and functional and affordable of course) as this needed a clear space. I also needed a printer that actually worked. It has a copy machine too, that will be useful for the classes I teach.

To the actual round-up:
I've used the same filing system for eight years. The box in the front has clippings and things to save in ABC order. The back box is bills, teaching, insurance, etc. - what I need to open each month. I have a separate, small expanding folder for financial statements. I did this so I could grab something compact in case of an emergency like flood, fire or hurricane. Since I did not want to mess with a system that works for me, there is no "before" photo. The organizing I did here was putting papers in and taking many, many papers out to recycle or burn. (We do not own a shredder. We use the fire pit and roast some marshmallows.)

Now I get to work here:

There is a small desktop tray on the shelf that holds papers to file, bills, things for me to do, notepads. My ideal is to go through it each week. In reality I do it once a month. A goal for this year is to get more bills paperless, then I'll have less to sort.

My paper organizing spilled over to the stationary drawers.

These were both just stuffed and shuffled. (Sorry, no before pictures.) I kept what I like and gave the rest to my sisters. I know where cards' envelopes are. I know what pretty papers I have to write on. And I know to not buy my husband a Father's Day card for three years or an anniversary card for four years. Now I can write more notes and send more cards. I can actually find them.

Once I get some other projects done around the house, I hope to organize these papers.

That's three kids' home school projects for the last 18 months.

And I did not get to the desk drawer yet.

Thank you Laura for your ideas and motivation. It is so freeing to have a desk I can see, less paper clutter and things in their place.