lets get organized!! The Home Office pt. 2

 So, here we go with Step 2: Papers, Sorting, and Purging! This will seriously make you feel so much better!



So, this is awful but here is a good portion of the papers I had accumulated. Drawers, bags, even the laundry basket! I camped out on my bed, put a movie on, and got to it.

I didn't get any pictures of the actual sorting but it is very straightforward. I made 3 piles, Toss, Receipts, and Keep. I made a separate pile for the receipts because I am also revamping my whole budget/receipt system. You don't have to make the same piles, just whatever helps you get through your stack.

I want to stop for a moment and give a shout out to one of my favorite most motivating and inspiring blogs, A Bowl Full Of Lemons! I have come across a ton of great resources thanks to Pinterest, but she has seriously helped in getting my rear in gear when it comes to shaping up my home.

Now, who would have guessed the biggest pile was the receipts? I would! It was seriously a mountain! Which brings me to my next project, dealing with the vicious receipt cycle once and for all! And I think I have! Only time will tell, but this method seems awesome and has worked great so far. Click How to Organize Your Receipts to see what I followed. Below is my beautifully finished boxes with all receipts in their proper place. Happy me!

So the paper is finally under control! I had organized my filing cabinet a year ago so thankfully that was ready for all the papers I had to file. I was able to throw out a lot and with my new organizers I made spots for the miscellaneous stuff. So this leads me to Step 3: Putting everything in its place. A.K.A. The finished product!!

Until next time....



lets get organized!! The Home Office

Hey y'all! So, I took a fairly long break from my little blogging streak, but I'm excited to get back into it! I'm not going to waste anytime either. Are you ready to follow me in 2013, during my year of ORGANIZATION!?! 

Yes, that may sound a BIT intense but wouldn't it be so awesome for everything to have a place and a place for everything?! I was very inspired, by not only the New Year, but also because my family has been sick for the last month and it feels like everything needs to be cleaned, sorted, and well, organized. And no place in our house needed help more than our home office. Since we moved into our adorable little home over 2 years ago I have yet to get our office stuff under control. The computer and filing cabinet have been moved all over (including our bedroom, bleh!). But finally, about 6 months ago, we found the perfect spot. However, that's a far as I got.

I had ideas on being totally organized and on top of things, but I had no plan. And since I had no plan to implement, school papers got stacked all over, receipts had 6 different spots, and bills were buried, and even, forgotten. The pictures do not even tell the whole story. Items that look like they would be helpful in sorting, filing, and organizing, were just jammed with all types of papers just so that they had somewhere to go. I don't even have pictures of the kitchen counter, which also has a cute little organizer that does nothing but hold random things found around the house. The dining room is also a horror show of art supplies and Reese's crazy amount of school papers that I can never seem to throw away. So there I was, January 1, 2013, with a family sick with everything imaginable, while I was waiting on the moment that I could dive right into my first project of 2013, the home office. 

In the midst of still dealing with junky sickness, I had to start. Surprisingly, it wasn't as nearly intense and difficult as I thought. I certainly didn't do it all in one day, but if you break it down in to steps it can be done fairly quickly and efficiently. I used 3 basic steps and will share the first one with you in today's post:

Step 1 Clearing out your space and setting up your layout.

Step 2 Papers, sorting and purging.

Step 3 Putting everything in its place.

Step 1 is by far the most time consuming step but it's also so helpful. You need to be able to see the space you have and make sure it works for you. I didn't take pictures of the cleared out space, sorry! I just got caught up the with excitement of it all and forgot. I love changing rooms around. I always "see" a better set up, so I usually think. I was looking forward to switching around the furniture, assuming that there would be a better, more functional layout. After an hour or more of moving things in every possible way, guess what I found out? The way it was already set up was the most functional setup (minus 2 items plus one wonderful addition). The filing cabinet and the tall, red filing tower found perfect new homes and I also found a way to have a scrapbooking area (YAY!!). What went back into the space was a large red cabinet, a metal cart with 3 shelves, a small side table, my computer desk, and my new craft table that my amazing, talented husband made for me in like an hour. Now that everything was put back, emptied and cleared, it was time to deal with all that was left out, the PAPERS. Which brings us to Step 2 :).

Until next time....