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Welcome to the Plan-and-Organize-Life.com Newsletter. I hope you enjoy getting the newsletter and that it helps to keep you on track with your organizing goals. Remember, you can get a lot done in only 10 minutes of decluttering and organizing! Little bits add up over time. Table of Contents Introduction – Still decluttering and feeling good! Introduction – Still decluttering and feeling good! How is everyone doing so far this year with their decluttering and organizing? I have to tell you, I’m on a roll. I thought I was pretty organized but after reading
"It's All Too Much" by Peter Walsh I really hope that you have had a chance to do some decluttering, even if it’s only that one drawer that drives you nuts. Just think how good it would feel to open that drawer and find what you need immediately instead of feeling overwhelmed with trying to find things. Decluttering is truly a freeing experience once you get the hang of it and learn to let go. Be sure to keep an open mind to new ways of doing things. If an area of your home just isn't working for you, be willing to try new routines or new methods of organizing. Don't just say "that won't work for me". There is more than one solution to every problem. Try things until you find what works best for you and your home. The Monthly Mission – The Bedroom To read about the monthly mission for February, click here. Recent Site Additions Here are some of the more recently added pages to the website you may have missed. Start Getting Your Papers in Order Do you have a pile of papers growing on your desk, floors and any other flat surface you can find? Perhaps they’re all stuffed in a box when you hid them away because company was coming over. Maybe it’s a good idea to begin tackling that mountain of papers, especially because tax season is coming and it would be easier if you knew where all your documentation was. We are bombarded with papers daily, from bills, school, insurance, junk mail, etc. If you don’t deal with it right away, it can take over your home. I suggest you put in place a method to handle daily incoming paper and a home filing system. Don’t make this task more daunting than it need to be. If you can get some quiet time alone without interruptions, consider yourself lucky and go for it. But if you’re like many, interruptions are the norm! 1)Do NOT attempt to sort out all of your papers into piles before you actually file them. As you know, you’ll be interrupted and they’ll end up back into a single pile. 2)Make sure you have a file cabinet, file boxes or some sort of file container. Think about your needs… do you need to be portable, or is a big heavy standard cabinet fine? 3)Get some hanging file folders or tabbed folders and start by labeling the BIG categories (Ex. Bills To Be Paid, Taxes, Home Business, School Papers, Utilities, Other) just to get you started. You can decide what those categories should be. 4)Take that stack of papers and file each paper into the BIG category where it belongs, or toss/shred it if it’s garbage. Don’t worry about neatness or dates. This is a quick first pass sorting. 5)When you have more time, you can pull out one of the big categories and break it down into smaller categories as needed. You would then perhaps have a hanging file folder with sub-folders in each one. Example: Utilities hanging folder and within it, eventually, Phone, TV, Electric, etc.
You might want to look at my Home Filing System Home Filing System page for a little bit more help. And be sure to notice that there are links within this page for more details on filing of various types of papers as well as links at the bottom of the page. This first pass should hopefully get rid of anything that’s old and that’s garbage and leave only what’s still important and relevant. You should then have all your bills in one place as well which is very important! Here is an article from ABC News that also talks about getting your papers in order for tax time!
Sorting Your Way to a Better Home Filing System Until next time, happy organizing! Sincerely, Tracy Greene
P.S. Sometimes links to website pages get broken. If a link doesn't work, you may need to copy and paste the entire link into your browser.
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I realized that I still have a lot of corners to declutter and a lot of things to still learn to let go. In the past week alone, I’ve dropped off 2 bags of clothes and 1 bag of toys to Goodwill, found $10 cash in an old b-day card from my son’s first birthday (he turned 6 last month), and shipped away some unused books for cash. My daughter’s closet is now half empty, my closet has some breathing room and all around, it just feels great!
