Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pesky Piles of Paperwork


I love paper -- which is why I'm staring at piles of it: scrapbooking paper, magazines, notebooks, catalogs, books, applications, Weight Watchers stuff.... I'm definitely behind on my filing, so I'm working on it today -- on my "office" day.

My friend Dawn inspired me to buy a 2-drawer filing cabinet. Up until now I've been able to get by with one of those portable filing boxes. You know, the hard plastic kind you get at Target or Walmart that have a handle on top. As a young mom, I kept the following files:

Food/Kitchen: clipped recipes, take-out menus, coupons, and weekly ads

Clothes: the lastest copy of LL Bean and Lands End, plus an envelope to hold tags and receipts in case something needed to be returned

Gifts: clipped magazine pictures of neat gift basket ideas

Household: paint chips, appliance manuals, clipped magazine pictures of cute decorating ideas

One file for each kid: anything I needed to keep for them, plus their SS# written on the tab (you'd be surprised how often you need that)

School: handbook, yearly calendar

Now that my kids are grown (except one) and my home is pretty well established, my filing needs are just a little different. But what about you? How do you handle your paperwork? How do you decide what to keep and what to throw away?

1 comment:

  1. I love your blog...and today's entry! I pretty much have the same paper system as you. Today, however, the piles on the formal dinning room table were relocated to the top of the washer in the laundry room! =] So much to do, so little time. Keep up the good (blog) work!

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