It's Memorial Day weekend and I finally crossed a couple of items off my organizational to do list: the front closet and our paper files piles.
We have three coat closets in this house (no mudroom to speak of but many, many coat closets). We use one for the kids crafts/games, one for coats (crazy!) and one as a catch-all for just about everything else - winter coats, the vacuum, scrapbook supplies, a filing cabinet, extra shoes, small electronics, etc. Basically it was a giant mess and I dreaded opening the door.
{Please excuse the lack of a before picture - trust me, it was bad}
After.
I have been gathering ideas from organizing blogs these past few months, trying to figure out the best system for us. (The post that first got me thinking: this one from Young House Love. The post that really got me moving: this series from IHeart Organizing.)
Since the only coats I need to store in here are kid's coats, I figured it would be OK to add a small bookshelf ($20 at Target). Before everything just sat on the ground in a big pile which was not helpful. This closet now neatly holds everything we need it to: paperwork, scrapbook supplies, stationary, exercise equipment, electronics, a cooler, and the vacuum. It's still a catch-all but at least it's an organized catch-all (thank you, Mr. Label Maker).
For the paper portion of the closet, I borrowed a lot from this post about organizing files in binders instead of filing cabinets. I couldn't resist these cool binders from Target and the file boxes (for papers that are waiting to be filed) are from Ikea (can you say cheap?!)
I also made a big effort to go paperless a few months ago. As I was sorting through our mess of papers it was amazing to me how little we actually needed to save - most of the information is available on-line if we ever needed to access it.
I think I am sold on this binder method - it just seems easier to pull one of these off the shelf instead of looking through a filing cabinet and they take up a lot less space. For now, I still have a file box sitting on the floor for some of the items we rarely need to get at and all our old tax returns are in a black box sitting on the shelf. {Next up on my organizational to do list: a recipe binder as featured here - original credit goes to H-ville mom/blogger Kamarah).
The papers that I need day-to-day easy access to I keep in these folders on my kitchen counter. Just the simple task of labeling some file folders (that I already had) has made things just a tad bit less stressful around here.
Long story short, this is working for us - there's a place for everything, we're no longer buried in paper, and I actually enjoy opening this closet door.
Rock it Girl!!!
ReplyDelete