To Paris and Beyond: MISSION: Organization (Project 2)

by Ang

On to Project #2! My pantry organization project was a success and I'm proud to say I've kept it organized! (I realize it's only been about a week, but still).

My next priority was my desk. We have an office here at home, but it's my husband's office (he works from home). When I moved in, there was no room for my desk in his office. And I wanted to have my own desk so I could have a place to study, pay bills, BLOG, etc. So we designated a corner of our living room for my 'office'. Our living room is long and narrow, so it worked out just fine. My desk sits right by the patio doors so it's nice and light. And it doesn't feel like I'm right in the living room either. It's sort of on it's own.

BUT it is still technically part of our living room and our living room is visible from the kitchen, dining room and entry way (our house is very open). And I'm sad to show you had bad I let it get:

Aack! It's awful. I don't even see my laptop anywhere. And look at the piles and piles of....stuff!

The first thing I did was clear everything off and put it on the floor. And then I went through every sheet of paper, every folder, every miscellaneous item and divided it: keep (to file), put away, shred, throw away. This was obviously the most time consuming part. Once I went through everything (my 'throw away' pile was the largest!), I then went through my existing files. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a 'before' picture of the files in the cabinet.

This is the after picture of my files:

Okay, so this may not look like much. But I have to work with what I have. My desk has a small cabinet and it's not an actual file cabinet. So a few months back I bought a small portable file case (the gray thing with the hole) for my hanging files. The files you see on top of that are larger files that contain too much paperwork for a standard hanging file folder:

And everything on the left of the gray case are extra folders, envelopes, etc.

Now if you have a large desk or a large office with room for lots of hanging files, than that's obviously the way to go. But I don't. Plus, I believe that the more space you have, the more items you keep. I went through all of my files and got almost an entire trash bag full of files I don't need anymore. I simply don't have the room to keep them! I have a stash of the plastic folders that will hold a LOT of stuff. I just sorted everything down, got out the label maker and went to town!

It works for me. You don't need a label maker or fancy folders or anything. The most important thing is go through your files on a regular basis and get rid of what you don't need. With so many things available online, you don't need to keep a copy of your electric bill from a year ago. Or even six months ago. In fact, I just keep the most recent bill on a lot of our statements. It has saved a lot of space!