Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Monthly Mission – Living Room
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-Paper, paper, paper!

Introduction

A belated Happy New Year to everyone! It’s 2018 and ready to get a fresh start. I know that a couple days after Christmas I started getting that “let’s get organized” bug that periodically pops up and I filed and purged papers for about an hour and a half one day. Now I have a big pile of papers to shred!

I had to change my weekly planner that I have used for many years. Barnes & Noble decided to update their planner to not have lines to write on for each day. I need lines!!! So, I browsed around for a while and found a similar one that also had a pocket on the front cover. (The B&N one used to have a pocket too, but they eliminated that some time back as well.) My new planner is slightly bigger and a little nicer, but it has lines and so far is doing the job.

What do you want to accomplish in 2018 in terms of making your home more comfortable and organized? I know I’d love to declutter and have less stuff. I like spaciousness. I’d also really like to get the household to run on some sort of cleaning schedule so that the main parts of the house and the kitchen and bathrooms were cleaned a bit more regularly.

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The living room (or family room) is where everyone gets together to sink into a comfy couch and catch a TV show together. It’s a shared room that needs to be kept tidy so that everyone can use it comfortably. Clearing out space in the living room for everyone to live is our goal in January. To read more about the monthly mission, click here.

If you prefer to go digital, you might enjoy the Cozi Family Organizer. You can sync everyone's schedules together at no charge.

If you’re in a hurry to put some order back into your home, perhaps Mimi Tanner's unique method will give you that jumpstart. Check out her method at Declutter Fast: How To Get Your Home In Order Almost Immediately.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Daily Routines - Having a daily routine helps to keep you on track and makes keeping tidied up easier as it becomes a routine habit.

Organize Toys - The kids are out from school. Why not make a plan to have them help you organize all their toys?

Home Filing System - Here is the instructions for getting your home filing system together.

Meal Planning - Plan ahead for meals to reduce trips to the grocery store and save time.

Sorting Mail - Simple ideas for sorting your mail as soon as you get it.

Paper, paper, paper!

There is just so much paper! It comes in mainly from the mail and from school. It all needs to be dealt with, whether it goes in the trash, gets filed, or needs to be acted on. Here are the main rules for controlling the paper clutter!

1. Open the mail right away and place it into one of the following categories:

• garbage (Either toss or shred the item)
  
• “to do” folder (items to read, respond to, etc.)
  
• “bills to be paid”
  

2. File important papers. Once bills are paid and papers processed, the papers you need to keep need to be filed. You’ll want to have a file system to keep important documents such as insurance papers, loan documents, receipts, etc. Find a system that works for you and don’t over complicate it. (link to file page)

3. Tackle the backlog of papers you have stashed away in piles, closets, etc. Bring it all together and just start working through the papers one by one. Many may be garbage at this point, some may need to be filed. Hopefully you don’t find too many overdue bills. Once you get that sorted, you’ll feel caught up and accomplished.

4. Maintain the system. Daily, make sure you open the mail and collect papers from your kids. Process anything that’s urgent as soon as you can. Weekly, make sure you pay the bills from the bill folder. Then, weekly or whatever works best for you, be sure to file those papers.

For myself, this is where things break down. I intend to file weekly, but it’s more like I toss everything into a pile to be filed and it gets done every few months!!! Then it’s overwhelming.

Also, every 6 mo. to a year, you should purge any old papers from your filing system. For example, I like to keep 6 mo. of statements so every few months I need to purge the older ones. This can be quick (as you’re filing a new one, take out an old one), or do it all in one big purge session every 6 mo.


Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com