TIME TO ORGANIZE...#3 THE PAPER AVALANCHE

Are you a natural organizer or a natural pack-rat? Either way, this is the place for you.

YES, YOU DO HAVE THE TIME, YOU DO HAVE THE MONEY AND IT IS A PROBLEM IN YOUR LIFE!

Organization is not something that you do once and you NEVER have to do again. Think about your life, pick and choose what will work for you and please leave me your ideas or comments. I am constantly looking for new suggestions.

HOW ARE YOU COMING WITH THE THREE BOXES THAT WE STARTED IN MY LAST POST?

Don't make yourself crazy by trying to do too much. If you just do one box or drawer a day...well, that's one box or drawer closer then you were yesterday. It's an ongoing process. Set aside your 15 minutes a day or 30 minutes a week and make it sacred. If you don't put it into your schedule then nothing will ever get done.

NOW ONTO THE PAPER AVALANCHE.....

DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE THIS?

Here are my 5 suggestions to control this.....

1. Deal with the mail, immediately. Don't let your mail pile up. As soon as you walk in the door, toss the junk mail that doesn’t have any identifying information and shred junk mail that someone could use to steal your identity. Do it right away and it will not become more clutter.

2. Create a filing system for your bills. I've heard you don't need to, but I keep my copies of bills for a year. It's actually saved me a couple times, when I needed to backtrack to prove I made a payment. I file once a month and in December I spend a couple hours shredding the old bills to make room for the new. At this same time, I also collect all the receipts I need for tax time.

3. Sort through your magazine subscriptions and cancel the ones you're not interested in anymore. This is also a good money saver. Recycle the newspaper as soon as you read it and this won't stack up either.

4. Pay on line or use auto-bill pay. I use auto-bill pay for all but one bill. The mortgage company doesn't allow it. So along with the the baby sitter and the credit card, I only write 3 checks a month. Check into going paperless too. Since the car payment is made automatically through my bank, I have the bill sent to me as an email only. I store these email receipts for a year too and then I delete them.

5. My son is only a year old, but when he starts school I plan on having a basket just for his work. He can put all his papers and projects in it and at the end of the week we'll go through it. We can discuss things he needs to work on and only keep the work he is really proud of. Consider making a "Wall of Fame" from a bulletin board. Every week put up the work and awards they bring home. When you switch out the work, put the most important projects, awards and reports in a large box that he can keep in his closet. I still have all my report cards and a few stories and projects I did from grade school. They are fun to look back on. If you don't want your children to be pack rats you've got to start early.

Fellow organizers, is there anything I forgot? Please leave me a comment and let me know.

Pack-rats, was this helpful? Do you have any questions? Suggestions for future posts? Let me know.

NOW GET TO WORK!