Are you organized?

[npmommie]

I always seem to have piles of mail, paper clutter, drives me nuts, some stuff I feel I should keep, some I throw, bills I am trying to come up with a good way to keep them organized.
I moved my desk down to the basement play room, just to free up some space upstairs, but really I think I am disorganized because of that.
I need a system for keeping paper clutter out.
how long to keep things, what to keep, how to keep it, etc.
what is your system for staying organized?

 

[SaraJayne]

Yes, I am. I hate clutter and won't have any around (esp. paper).

The mail is sorted immediately when it comes in the house. Most of it's recycled, but some goes in the shred pile and things we need to look at (bills, other info) goes in the basket under the phone. Most of our bills are taken out of our accounts automatically, so we don't even get that many bills in the mail anymore.

As it comes out of the basket and taken care of, it either gets recycled or shredded.

School papers are read immediately, filled out, etc and returned to backpacks. If it's info I need to keep, I have a corner in a large drawer where I keep paper and other miscellaneous things I need to keep.

 

[dngnb8]

I have the greatest organizing system on the planet. The Wife.

 

[kt_mom]

No, I am very unorganized and I hate it. But try as I might, its just one of those things I know I'll never be. I also tend to be messy but that has gotten better after years of being married to my very organized very neat husband.

 

[happily single]

I'd love to hear how everyone organizes their paperwork,bills, etc.

Currently I do open all mail immediately; toss anything I don't need and place bills on shelf on desk; other mail "that needs attention" is placed next to printer, where it sits and sits..and sits

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I just bought a system called Freedom filer. I haven't gotten it all together yet but it sounds great. It's color coded which helps to rotate files yearly.
A girl on another forum recommended it to me.

http://www.freedomfiler.com/


For receipts and such I purchased a neat receipts scanner and I scan everything that I don't need to keep the original copy of. It all get filed away in my computer.
I love it!!
DH uses the travel one for work.

http://www.neatco.com/


For catching mail (I sort on the weekends) I have an 8.5 x 11 box that I put everything in. The shredder is near by as is a bag for recycling.

 

[NMAmy]

I have an expandable folder with a pocket for each month. The mail goes into a basket during the week and on the weekend I sort through it. Once paid, bills and other paperwork goes into the folder for the month. At the beginning of each month, I pull out the paperwork from the previous year and 99% of it can be shredded which I do immediately.

I used to keep a file for each bill, etc but found that I never got rid of the old stuff plus it took up a whole file drawer. This way forces me to take care of it each month and the only thing I have is a pocket folder that fits in a cupboard.

 

[bettymae1121]

I'm not super organized, but I'm not a total mess either. Right now my desk looks like a bomb went off, but it would only take me about 15 minutes to go through it and file/toss/put away (which is actually on my to-do list for this weeknd). Everything HAS a place, just not everything is IN it's place at the moment. The clutter is limited to my office though, the rest of our home is pretty much in order.

 

[Desnik]

I am very organized and hate any kind of clutter. I keep organized by throwing stuff out. It's that simple. If I put mail aside for DH to view, not bills or anything important, and he doesn't bother with it with in 2 days it's in the garbage. I have a lot of my bills paperless now so that helps with less mail.

When the kids bring stuff home from school, only the really special pictures and projects get saved in a bin. The rest, garbage. Yes I'm mean like that.

I have a filing cabinet for important papers and a folder for receipts. That I go through about every 6 months to clean out.

I am brutal when it comes to things laying around. If there is a toy in the play room that hasn't been played with in a year or the kids are too old for, it goes! Same thing with clothing, if I haven't worn it in a year or it doesn't fit, it goes.

My family always teases that if they want to keep something they better hide it because I will throw it out if it's laying around too long. But I never hear a complaint, only compliments on how neat and organized everything is! When they need something it's where it's suppose to be, not under a pile of clutter.

My DS(8) saw an episode of hoarders once and was appalled. He said to me, "thank God you are so clean mommy, now I know why you throw everything out! You don't want to live like that!"

 

[nikkistevej]

I am a little OCD with organization. I have no clutter, my mom's house was and still is extremely cluttered growing up and it drove me nuts. My sister is very unorganized too- like my mom. I am really bad with vacation planning OCD too, I have a notebook with color coordinated binders for my Alaska cruise and Seattle trip coming up. And all of my extended family(that is going also) will also be getting folders with all pertinant(sp?) info for the trip. I have issues, what can I say.

 

[nikkistevej]

I am very organized and hate any kind of clutter. I keep organized by throwing stuff out. It's that simple. If I put mail aside for DH to view, not bills or anything important, and he doesn't bother with it with in 2 days it's in the garbage. I have a lot of my bills paperless now so that helps with less mail.

When the kids bring stuff home from school, only the really special pictures and projects get saved in a bin. The rest, garbage. Yes I'm mean like that.

I have a filing cabinet for important papers and a folder for receipts. That I go through about every 6 months to clean out.

I am brutal when it comes to things laying around. If there is a toy in the play room that hasn't been played with in a year or the kids are too old for, it goes! Same thing with clothing, if I haven't worn it in a year or it doesn't fit, it goes.

My family always teases that if they want to keep something they better hide it because I will throw it out if it's laying around too long. But I never hear a complaint, only compliments on how neat and organized everything is! When they need something it's where it's suppose to be, not under a pile of clutter.

My DS(8) saw an episode of hoarders once and was appalled. He said to me, "thank God you are so clean mommy, now I know why you throw everything out! You don't want to live like that!"

I think we are related!!!!!

 

[Desnik]

I think we are related!!!!!

My name is Nikki too!

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Very, folders and files at the office and digital where possible. At home, most everything is kept digitally.

 

[fraggle551]

Nope. I hate it. Part of it is because i'm just out of college, moved back home, and am trying to find a job. So I have my entire childhood, college life, and everything in 1 room. It is an absolute disaster and I don't even know where to start. I am so overwhelmed. My dream is to have a bedroom where it is spotless, and like a resort. One day, i'll get there! Whenever I have my own house, I hope to have it incredible organized.

Part of my problem is that I barely have a space for all my stuff. And I have too much stuff! I need to throw out a lot. I need an army of help!

 

[nikkistevej]

My name is Nikki too!

twins seperated at birth......

 

[KimR]

I am extremely disorganized and I hate it but I can't seem to do anything about it. I'm convinced it's something you're either born with or you aren't. My Mother was very organized so you'd think I would have at least gotten some of that from her, but nope. Not one single strand of that DNA.

 

[LaurenLC]

I use to be INCREDIBLY organized, and then I had a baby! People tell me I am still way more organized than most, but I'm defiantly not where I use to be.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

No. And my husband thinks we are the only family is this way. He has this delusional outlook that other people's homes are in perfect shape and we just have something wrong in our home.

Every time I visit someone's house and it is in disarray, I almost want to bring my husband over through a tour while I tell the homeowner that I am grateful to find they are NORMAL!

One time--as I cringed when he opened his mouth to speak, he asked his brother and SIL how they keep their house so clean because we couldn't seem to do it. IF looks could kill!!!!!

Then they pointed out the seemingly obvious, they both work, so their kid is in daycare and they are away from home from 7am to 7pm. No time to really get it messed up. (no judgment to working parents--this was their EXACT words!)


We moved and I have many "projects". My husband cannot stand it. I pointed out that I don't have time because I'm too busy cleaning up after people on basic stuff that the piles must get ignored.

I don't like it--but I am still in survival mode. Multiple illnesses in the family since February. Then I have to fix what got broke.

IT is exhausting! But my goal this summer is to organize some functional space so that "everything has a place". When "everything has a place", organization is possible. Until then, we deal with Mount-bill pile and the Boxes of Crap Mountain Range.

I could be organizing right now--but after 72 hours of illness, I'm just too tired to deal with it.

I much prefer organization.

 

[bicker]

We have loads of piles of paper laying around. We GREATLY prefer organization and everything properly filed, but we had to let the staff go , so the papers just keep piling up.

My dream is a new auto-feed scanner - scan-to-disc. Then we can feed each piece of paper into the scanner and once scanned we can feed them into a shredder. Heck, they should make a scan-and-shred device! That would be great. Then, we can review the papers on our computer: Organizing files on a computer is far easier than making or finding folders, trying to fit an overfilled folder back into an overfilled file drawer, etc. When the hard disc gets full, then we just buy a larger hard disc and copy the entire system over.

 

[Rora]

I'm one of those "my house is messy but I know where everything is.. I'm a very organized mess",

I'm really well organized but my house could use some decluttering.