I am so tired of piles of paper littering every surface of my apartment. Junk mail and bills and syllabi and magazines and pamphlets and greeting cards. It’s. never. ending.
But no more. NO. MORE. I just read a fantastic how-to in the January 2012 issue of Better Homes and Gardens (which, incidentally, is so sneaky, it lured me into subscribing with a sneaky $5.99/12 mos introduction offer…see what I mean? PAPER EVERYWHERE!).
Anyway, I’d like to share my new attempt at keeping papers filed.
So all paper that comes in goes into the ‘Action File.’ If I can sort it everyday, I should be able to keep the mess under control. ‘Do Now’ is for stuff that has to happen THIS WEEK. ‘Do Later’ is for stuff that has to happen in the next three months. ‘Pending’ is for stuff I have to wait on – textbook orders, invoices, a call back, whatever.
This little guy is a refuge from a 1940’s department store (he used to hold ladies’ stockings). I found him in an architectural salvage here in the city. Anything else goes either in the trash, the shredder, or in one of these slots. Once a week, this gets emptied and everything filed in the filing cabinet in the office or, as Better Homes and Gardens calls it, “my long-term storage solution.”
This could be really hard to maintain. But I’m going to try. Which brings me to my new “one-hour system.” But that’s a post for tomorrow.
What kinds of new organizational tools are you trying this year? Happy January 2nd!
love, elizabeth
