home organization

This is an update on a post I did about paperwork and since I’m a right-brained, creative, ADD, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-skinny-jeans kind of a girl, I thought you’d like to know that tax season didn’t stress me out at all. This system has worked well for me for the past two years, so I think I finally found my answer. Hope it helps you, too!

People who know me really well are chuckling right now. Me?    Trying to give you advice on your paperwork organization?  It’s  nearly outrageous.   I’m the creative, artsy, right-brained, ADD, ENFP type who has never balanced her checkbook.  Isn’t that what the bank is for?  I’m posting this while my sister is out of town on purpose.  She’s the organized one and when we were younger, I always wanted to trade rooms with her because hers was always tidy.  I was convinced  that particular room  must just be easier to keep clean.  Alas, every space I occupied was creative and unique but never organized.  She’ll get a hearty laugh out of this post.

Here’s why I decided to tell you about my system. You see, I’m a stacker. I make lots of stacks. And as soon as I clear the stacks, I make more stacks. I adore stacks. Only when the stacks topple over and my water bill is late do I reconsider my proclivity toward stack making. And the truth is, I’ve struggled for years with my papers.  One thing I know about myself is that if something can be made beautiful (and almost everything can), I will be inspired.  I searched high and low for a system that could be pretty.  After my extensive searching for something that wasn’t bulky, I found these acrylic boxes at, some pretty sunshine colored file folders and a labeler and off to work I went.  With the help of my staff, of course.

In about six hours, I turned chaos into beauty.  It’s a system that’s sustainable and requires minimal effort to maintain.  And it’s pretty.

Right before the fire, I found this book that inspired me (I’m still looking for it in my archives!) and made me feel that even I could conquer the paper stacks.  So, I got my system organized and then 2 months later, it all went up in flames.

It’s taken me this long to set it all up again but I’m so excited to  know exactly what to do with every piece of paper that comes in my door.

Here’s how even an artsy, messy girl got her papers in order.

1.  Create a filing system in a way that works for you.

I have 3 of these boxes:  one for home finances, one for everything related to our rebuild and insurance, and one for important personal documents,  homeschooling related materials and keepsakes.

In my home finance box, I have a folder for every bill I pay and for all our bank and insurance accounts.   You’ll have to decide how many boxes you’ll need but 2-3 will probably be plenty.

I plan to keep things in this box for a year and then (copying my sisters’ method), I’ll combine anything important into a 2012 folder so that I can start fresh in 2013.

2.   Create an ‘incoming/outgoing/to be filed’  center.

I use this acrylic 3 tier organizer and have a section for incoming/outgoing/to be filed.  With this sort of system, you immediately have something to do with your mail besides stack it.  And then when you find time to process through it, you know where it is.   The whole, ‘touch each paper once’ idea is finally starting to work at my house.  I throw junk mail away, put bills into ‘incoming’ and then use my smart phone to add things to my calendar that I need to remember, like weddings and birthday parties, etc.  And due to my tendency to forget to look at my calendar, I send myself 2 alerts for everything I enter into my calendar.  How in the world could I ever  miss a dentist appointment, you ask?  I don’t know but it still happens occasionally.  One thing is for sure, if it’s not recorded in my phone with 2 alerts, it probably won’t happen. But, I digress.  

3.  Don’t be afraid to throw it away.

Trust me on this.  I’ve developed a low threshold for throwing things away.  Why?  Because I lost everything once and turns out, you don’t really need that much.  You can survive your life fairly well with very few papers in it.  And anything you really need, you can probably get from the person/company who sent it.  If you’re brutal on the front end, there’s less to process through and file and the chances are better that you’ll keep up with the system.   In my case, there’s one very important caveat—-insurance.  I have to keep every receipt of everything I buy so that I can turn it into insurance for reimbursement.   But after I’m through with this process, I’ll only keep receipts for major purchases.

A few examples of how  it works for me:

graduation announcement—add the date to my calendar and set an alarm a week ahead to send a card.   If  I can attend the event, I try to RSVP (in a perfect world) and if it’s a photo announcement, I keep those in a file folder labeled keepsakes.

wedding invitation—add the date to my phone (calendar) and even add where the couple is registered so I’ll know where to look for a gift.  Set reminder alarms.

homeschool catalogue—I almost always throw them away because most if not all of the info can be found online.

I’m sure this system is way too simplified for you OCDers out there but it works better than anything I’ve tried and it seems to be sustainable.  Don’t tell me about your excel spread sheets because I’ll start to convulse.  There’s nothing pretty about that unless you think spreadsheets are pretty 🙂  I’m sticking with my cute little boxes and my smart phone.

Hope this helps my ADD, artsy friends to see a glimmer of organized hope!  You’ll feel like a full fledged adult with a host of properly filed papers.  I love it so much I’m contemplating converting to OCDism and buying a paper shredder.  Heaven help us all.

I’m ashamed to say that my kitchen has been sorely neglected until yesterday.  I spent the better part the afternoon cleaning and froofing, but have not been on my A game with cooking lately.  And by that I mean we’ve had frozen pizza twice this week.  What are we, newlyweds?  I even went to the store one night to buy “dinner” and came back with a box of cocoa puffs and some bagel bites.  A 44 year old woman cannot eat like that in good conscience.  Consider this my confession and my promise to make real food in the near future. And Stevie?  Well, bless his heart. He takes it like a trooper.  He made spaghetti nachos one night in desperation and  they were FANTASTIC.  He makes 15 year old boy food like a champ.

But, let’s pretend none of that ever happened and that I always manage to cook from my meal plans, promise to never speak of it again, and move on with the 10 things I use everyday in my kitchen that I wouldn’t want to live without.   Sadly, bowls did not even make the list.

1. Tea towels—I have both the large square size, commercial grade,  and the traditional tea towel size on hand.   The ones with the blue stripe remind me of a Grannie kitchen and can double as napkins. These are very thin towels and I prefer them EVERY time to thick kitchen towels.  They are so easy to use, don’t leave lint on anything and I can easily wrap the large ones around a dutch oven and tie it at the top to take soups/stews to people without spilling.  They are by far my favorite little kitchen work horse.  I recently bought this adorable tea towel from Sasha.  Her shop is fully of goodies!

2. Cutting boards—I have a plethora of cutting boards, but the pig is my personal favorite.  The rooster is in my amazon waiting  cart.  But I love all shapes and sizes, especially this paddle board.

3. A good knife—for years, I’ve used the chef’s knives from Sam’s club, b/c they’re so cheap and work great for a few months, until they need sharpened.  (I’ve never learned to do that.) This Christmas, with the combination of an amazing deal and a gift card, I got this crown jewel.  OH SWEET MERCY.  You need a hunting license to use it, it’s so sharp.  But, I love it and can’t believe I waited this long to get a great knife.

4.  A cute apron—DO NOT underestimate the power of an apron.  It will instantly transform you into Betty Crocker.  It lends street cred to the home cook and protects your cute blouses from oil and water and in my case, chocolate.

5.   Something that makes you smile.  OR laugh.  For me, that’s my People who love food are always the best people print, my David bust with his straw cowboy hat, plants, flowers, etc.

6.  Thieves Cleaner.  Y’all, this is not a word of a lie.  Since I switched to Young Living’s household cleaner, I have been able to toss nearly everything else out.  It’s plant based, with no hormone disrupting toxins like so many cleaners have.  It’s basically a  unicorn and it works SO WELL!!!!  There are a million reasons why I want you on my YL team TODAY, but this is a big one!  Get more info here!!

(Side note number 1—there’s a chandelier cleaner that you just spray on and let it drip dry. Can we make one of those for the whole kitchen?)

(Side note number 2— I may be getting my countertops honed, but until then, enjoy my post on whether or not you should have marble countertops based on personality type.)

(Side note number 3: Large dough bowl comes in at a close 11. I bought mine in Birmingham and love it!)

7.  Iron Skillet—Every home cook needs cast iron.  We use ours so much that I rarely put it away.

8.  Dutch Oven—I have Le Creuset and it was the 3rd thing I bought after our house fire—right after a computer and cowboy boots, if that tells you how it ranks in my economy.   I can tell you that it’s THE most used thing in my kitchen and I LOVE it so much.  It’s perfect for cooking nearly everything I cook.  I never even put it away, because it’s a rare day that I don’t cook in it. I actually have several because sometimes I luck up and find them really cheap at TJ Maxx.  It’s an investment, but you’ll have it for a lifetime and then your kids will fight over it!

9.  Kitchen Aid mixer—I don’t know who works harder, her or the dutch oven.  I use them both almost everyday.

10. Large glass jars for baking supplies—I use these, that can be purchased from Walmart, Target, or here on Amazon.  Having your baking supplies out and ready makes it SO much easier to bake.  I print the labels myself using the font Champignon at a 200 font size and then tape them on with clear packing tape.

Now, it’s your turn.  Tell me your favorite kitchen implement/tool/workhorse.