Tackling Paper - Day 3 - The Odds & Ends

Happy Friday!  Well, hopefully you've been following our war on paper this week and are ready to really finish it off with a bang!  If you're just popping in, start here.

We've talked about how to get your files looking pretty, but what about the other stuff?  What about all the creativity your kids come home with?  Or all the appliance manuals and warranties?  These are things you want to keep (some of), but you don't necessarily need ready access to them.

Enter, the file box.

I scooped up 2 of these from - can you guess? Target. One holds Little Man's masterpieces and the other holds papers we need to hang on to, but don't need to look at or have in the way.

For kiddie crafts, I save everything he brings home throughout the month and display away on his peg board in the playroom and on the fridge.  I'm a proud mama, after all.  Then, when the next month's cuteness starts rolling in, I gather the previous months things and save the things that really show his personality or growth.

This is hard.  I'm not going to lie.  If I'm on the fence, I hang on to it for another month.  The things we keep go in a file folder in the bin labeled with a picture of Little with his teachers and the year.

In the 2nd bin, I have a folder dedicated to:

  Education - transcripts from college and important things to hang on to from each of our Master's programs (aren't we smarties? ;)

  Computer - all those cd's that come with new computers, printer manuals, etc

  Manuals - things like the camera, the progammable thermostats, etc

  Appliances - things like the dishwasher, water heater, etc

I'm sure I will come up with other things to throw in this box, but for now, it is working!

Having these boxes has freed up my file drawer and put me in charge of where the "need to keep" things live.  I love that they fit easily on a shelf, but could be moved to another spot easy-peasy.

Well, there you have it.  We showed paper who's boss in 1 week!  No more exploding file drawers and scary stacks for you!

I hope everyone has a warm first weekend of the New Year!  I'll be trying to stick to my plan of healthy eating.  So far so good, but I have to make cookies and brownies for our tennis match this weekend...I can do it! :)

See you next week for our a fun Goodwill find, an update on our guest room/office, and some more organizing.  Next stop on our clean house mission, the kitchen.

XO,
  Sara