I like file folders, but there are times when they do not do the job of holding things together. I learned early on to keep plenty of plastic food storage bags on hand to use for those items that are too bulky for a file folder, but not right for storing in a box or basket. They are best used when a flexible container would work better than the straight side of a folder or the firm structure of a box.
Bags can be stored horizontally or vertically. Because they are clear, it is easy for me to see the contents, and get a sense of what is and is not included in the bag.
I use gallon-size bags for computer manuals, including set-up instructions, CDs and extra cables; pattern pieces that do not fit back in the original envelope and large warranty and instruction manual sets. Quart or sandwich-size baggies I use for smaller warranty/receipt/manual sets, groupings of snapshots, collectibles, small "junk drawer" items, and parts that are not in use currently, but will probably be needed in the future. For example, when dismantling a bed frame or any piece of furniture to store or move, the bolts and washers, etc., immediately go into a baggy that is securely taped to the furniture or labeled and put into a drawer.
A lot of items I used to keep in large bags I now keep in the clear plastic folders, portfolios and page sleeves. They hold together collections of paper, and I can see at a glance the nature of what is inside.
Before plastic totes and file boxes with hanging file folder rails became popular and available--even before stacking milk crates--I used plastic baskets for storage and organizing files. I bought the cheap dollar plastic baskets that were just the right size to hold (without tipping over) a stack of magazines or manila file folders set on end. I could separate the contents into categories by using baskets of different colors. I turned the basket with the wide side facing me when I was actively working on the files, and then turned them so the narrow side was out when I stored them on a bookshelf. Even after all the other organizing goodies became available, I still used my inexpensive plastic baskets.
Today, in addition to the rectangular plastic baskets that are about six inches deep, there are a large variety of baskets made from everything from wicker to canvas. I have found many uses for mine. One holds my sewing supplies, another my make-up bottles and tubes (looks better that to have them scattered over my bathroom vanity). A few are used as drawers on a shelf.
My open slope-sided canvas bins are used to hold everything from toilet paper to my magazines and quilt books. Business information I keep in file drawers and office boxes, but I use bins for those things I want to see and get to quickly. I love using baskets for organizing the materials I need for my research projects, such as when I was working on a video slide show of my father's World War Two experiences. One bin holds the papers and books I need for my novel I am writing. In some of my smaller baskets, I keep sewing pattern envelopes, CDs and hair accessories.
Then there is the catch-all basket on the desk, the one where papers go until I figure out if I want to keep it, work it, or put into another basket sometimes referred to as the "round file".
Having baskets or bins handy to stash the things in my life helps me overcome my natural tendancy to put everything in one big pile that soon becomes so overwhelming to go through, that I usually procrastinate tackling it. If I want something for family history, I check that basket; if I want something for quilting, I check that bin. If it isn't there, I check the catch-all bin.
The other feature of baskets and bins that works for me is that they have space constraints. Once they are full, I am motivated to reorganize, throw some things out, or do whatever I need to in order to get them back in functional mode again.
I may still have a lot of what appears to be clutter to others, and much of it is on display in my baskets and bins. But --to me, anyway--it is user-friendly and organized.
Here I am on the first day I was able to wear my missionary badge for the Area Support Mission in Family History Center Support that I am currently serving for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I live at home and serve part-time. It is a lot of studying to get trained.
The wall hanging behind me is a nativity Christmas card holder that I quilted and put together last fall. All my Christmas decorations but this one are put away. That is because I want to take a few more leisurely moments to look through all the greeting cards sent by family and friends.
Everyone who can, I hope you donate to the Haitian relief effort. The Red Cross is a good organization to donate to, as is the L.D.S. Church's relief fund. The Church often works directly with trusted organizations already in the area. To learn more what the Church is doing, go to: http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse.
To donate through the Church, go to http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/.
Okay, I already know that I will never win any ribbons at the county fair for gift-wrapping. But, I had a bulky wedding gift to find a box for, wedding wrapping paper and a bow to shop for and then I had to get it wrapped well enough that it did not look like one of my cats did the job for me. Not my favorite thing to do...
Since I am focused on containerizing lately, I remembered that one of the department stores had storage totes on special for a very reasonable price. I decided--hey--instead of going crazy looking for the right-sized box and spending money on fancy paper that will just end up in the trash, why not spend about the same amount on a wrapping the new couple can use after all the wedding festivities are over?
Hence, the wedding tote. I taped the lid shut, added a satin ribbon and a homemade bow, and toted it to the reception. Like I said, no prizes, but it did the job.
Yes, I know, a solid white storage tote is against my advice to keep containers clear. However, (a) white is an appropriate color for a wedding gift, and (b) I did not want them (and everyone else at the reception) to see what I gave them until the joyous couple were ready to open presents.
If nothing else, anything they want to save for "re-gifting", they can store in the tote.
It is time for a disclaimer, here. I am not writing this little series about organizing because I am an expert in the field and my belongings are always organized in show-room perfect style. I am writing this because:
(A) in spite of my ability to organize, I get going on my projects in full dove-tail mode, and I soon realize my home is the castle of the consummate clutter queen.
(B) Writing this is helping to motivate me to do what I know needs to be done if I am going to stay unburied by my "laundry room" organized piles long enough to do everything I want and need to do. In other words, by going public with my advice, I am drawing a line in the sand. If I do not follow through, someone is bound to notice and call me on it.
So, this week's tip on storage containers was learned through experience. I have used everything from an apple box for each child to store their childhood mementos, to detergent boxes for magazines to banana boxes or old dresser drawers to store fabric.
We live in the country, with its extra-abundance of dust, bugs and rodents. I have found rodent nests in my fabric, and black widow spiders in old receipt boxes (including the ones where the glue holding the cardboard together dissolved in our wonderful January foggy atmosphere and collapsed when a curious cat jumped on it, scattering the contents all over our shop building floor) Then there are the papers that have turned yellow and brittle due to the acid in either the cardboard box or wooden drawer in which they were stored.
But, the most common annoyance is that I sometimes seem to spend more time searching for things than getting things done.
So, here it is.....
Unless whatever being stored must be protected from exposure to light, I now get clear containers, or containers with color that are opaque enough that I can see the contents. If I have 3 peachy-colored totes, I can see which one has rolls of fabric, which one has yarn supplies and which one has last season's clothes. I do not need to fuss with labels or open the lids to dig around in the contents. Even with several totes stacked on top of each other or on a large shelf unit, I can tell at a glance which one has last year's tax receipts, which one has left-over Tupperware, which one has craft supplies, and which one has my Christmas-print quilting fabric. The totes themselves are light-weight, so I can usually move them around easily to get to the one that I can see at a glance holds the contents I want.
Along with the storage containers that have a capacity of several gallons, I have several medium-sized storage totes that are measured in quarts. Like portable office boxes (which I now always purchase with part of it clear) that I use for writing and research projects, I use these medium-size totes to organize craft and fabric projects. As I write this, one holds the makings of a full quilt top; one my purse fabric, pattern and accessories; one my vest-making fabrics and one my counted cross-stitch kits.
But, the real secret to my clear container organizational method is that I have a lot of those inexpensive clear shoeboxes. They are affordable (about a dollar each), lightweight, stack beautifully with their flat lids, and quickly organize and contain all manner of supplies and projects. Some of the things I store in my shoeboxes besides shoes are craft/jewelry-making supplies, sewing notions, note cards, family history memorabilia, cross-stitch supplies, extra office supplies, CDs, garden seeds and small tools, first-aid supplies, my first-day cover collection, packaged snacks for traveling, gift-wrap ribbon and tape, Christmas lights (wrapped around an old gift-wrap tube cut to size) and other small holiday decorations, cords and accessories for my computers/phones/cameras, bathroom supplies stored under the sink, scarves, and "junk drawer" stuff. I also have used about eight of them to organized my fat quarters of fabric for quilting by color or design type. Others I have used to keep together fabric and supplies for current or future projects. Oh, yes, then there are the shoeboxes that hold the UFOs--Unfinished Fabric Objects.
My parents gave me an overnight case when I was a teenager (We will not discuss how long ago that was.) When my children were little (we still will not discuss how long ago that was), I needed a place to put my sewing notions, such as bias tape, zippers, and fasteners. They ended up in that overnight case. For the last several years, I thought I had thrown out the case, because I could not find it anywhere.
Well, last winter when Buck cleaned out the shop in order to build his ham shack inside, the overnight case turned up. Last week, the contents were combined with the sewing notions I have acquired in the last decade. What I can tell you is, I will not need to purchase black or white bias tape for a very long time.
Wow! Amazing what getting everything together and organized in one place where I can see what I have can do!
These clear plastic containers protect my things from dust, pests and degrading chemicals such as the acid or formaldehyde in many cardboard or wood containers. I would love to keep them behind cabinet doors, but I do not have enough cabinets for everything. So, I use wire shelving (minimal dust collectors) to stack my clear storage boxes. I do make a point to protect the contents from direct sunlight.
I can keep my stuff better organized, see what I have, and find what I want without tearing the whole house apart looking.
Well, most of the time. I am still the clutter queen.
As part of my organizing, I put away the latest little stack of handmade cards I received from two of my daughters-in-law. I really enjoy receiving them, and cannot bear to throw them away. To me, they are works of art.
I keep the small ones in a plastic shoebox and the large ones in a zip-close plastic bag on top of the shoebox. So far, they all fit in one box, unlike my pre-digital camera, not put in an album, photo collection that is in at least seven plastic or acid-free photo boxes.
Li'l Momma has been making the cards for years. Since Big W has joined the family, I have received handmade cards from her, too. They each have their own style, but both make beautiful cards.
I have tried my hand at cards, but have not been faithful about it. When the local unit of my union was in charge of the 2005 state convention, I framed some collectible stamps and first day covers to sell as fund-raisers. At the same time, I started to make cards for my family, and mounted a four-stamp block to keep as a collectible as part of the design. During this time, I really began to appreciate what wonderful works of art can be found on many of the stamps sold by the U.S. Postal Service.
I tried my hand at it again, with a birthday card for #1 daughter, Big A. She can keep it as a card, or peel the 4" x 6" green card off of the front and frame the collectible stamps. If she or any of my family who get these cards just peel the stamps off to use and throw the rest away, I hope they do not tell me about it. I am not a painter, like my sister, aunt and grandmother, but that is one of my forms of art. I hope some of it lasts longer than I do.
Wow! I am really getting on top of this getting-organized-for-the-coming-year thing. I guess there is a part of me that knows that, now I have started my training for a service mission in Worldwide Support for Family History Centers, if I do not get things set up now, I will end up with no time to do anything.
So, in addition to my organizational tips that work for me that I plan to share each week, I must say that I am really happy that tonight I completed the following:
(1) I better organized my fabric and craft materials (more on that next week), 2) I transferred current phone numbers and family birthdays from my old pocket calendar to my new one, and (3) I made up my new bill-paying cheat sheet for the coming year.
Like many people, I keep my bills that come in the mail in a bill box. I used to review and sort them in the general order in which they get paid once a week when Buck and I had paychecks coming in that often. Now we get money three times a month, so that is how often I review bills to be paid.
However, now some bills come online and several are on auto-payment. To help me keep track of what bills must be paid when, and what bills I did remember to pay, I devised a bill-paying record, aka cheat sheet.
What works for me is to, on a 4" x 6" index card, list the bills in the approximate order in which they must be paid each month and to draw columns for tracking. In addition to 12 columns for the months that I check off once I actually pay the bill, I have columns for payee name, usernames and passwords. Another narrow column is for notes, such as if a bill is always due on a certain date of the month, or if it is an auto-pay bill.
Yes, yes, I know that as a U.S. Postal Service retiree I should support my former employer by paying all my bills by mail. But, reality is, I was paid bi-weekly back then, and my money never was in my bank on the same date each month. Some months, getting the money in the bank and the bills in the mail in time was iffy. I did not dare send a bill too many days before my money was deposited in case the payment check hit the bank before the deposit.
I do not think the problem of not knowing for sure how many days it took for a bill to be delivered and deposited was because of the Postal Service as much as it was due to the mail rooms of the companies receiving my payments. For years I mailed in my house payment. Each time I sent it in early with several days to spare, the check would hit my bank three days after I mailed it. However, if I mailed it three days before the grace period deadline date, the check would hit my bank in four days. The payment was late by one day and I ended up with a late fee. That only had to happen twice, and I found another way to make that payment. Online bill payments began for me.
Checks, envelopes and stamps cost money. I am paying for my internet service whether or not I pay my bills online.
With the coming of more of my bills being paid online came the cheat sheet. Not only did I need a way to keep track of what bills I had to pay when, I needed something to keep track of my usernames and passwords. Different companies had different criteria. One size username and password did not work for every company.
I have a few usernames and three main passwords I use a lot (plus a few minor ones). I have a good memory, but not good enough to remember which username and password goes with each and every account I have. Thus, the cheat sheet.
I am smart enough that I do not have this information completely written out so that if someone gets their hands on my cheat sheet they can get into all my accounts and mess with them. I have my own little codes. I record 2-3 characters from the username or password and use dashes to fill in for the rest. For example, if one of my passwords was 7peanuts (which none of them are), I would write 7p-----s. Works pretty well. Not even Buck can figure out what my usernames and passwords are. (He has trouble with his own.)
Speaking of that, I went out of town last year for a week to a place where I could not get online to pay two bills. I asked Buck to handle it for me. He agreed, as long as I wrote out in full detail how to do it. I filled pages with instructions for the procedure that I knew how to do using only the information on one third of a line of a 4" x 6" card. When I arrived home, he told me that, just in case something ever happens to me, I needed to write out IN FULL all my usernames and passwords for each account and keep them in a safe place. He does not want to try to figure them out using my cheat sheet.
Why do I use a 4" x 6" index card instead of something like a large sheet of brightly colored paper? Because this card folded in half, along with my visiting teaching list, important business/doctor appointment cards, a small note pad, a full page of contacts information (folded in half, then tri-folded), extra stamps, an L.D.S. pass-along card, a few grandkid pictures, an emory board, a band-aid, toothpicks, a couple of paperclips, miscellaneous receipts and coupons and a pad or two of post-it notes for my shopping list or to-do tasks, I keep with my pocket-size by-the-month calendar.
That is another organizing tip that I learned from experience works for me.
I know there is a big industry for those big multi-ring planner books--some with leather covers, some zippered, some binder-size, some with purse compartments or cell phone/PDA pockets attached. When I started working as a union steward about 12 years ago, I invested in at least four of them over as many years. A couple of mine had the attached purse compartments which helped me some since keeping track of a purse, a zippered day planner book and a briefcase was awkward.
I loved the dividers, the plastic pouches, the business card holders, ruler and the calculator--all those fun toys. I hated the weight and the juggling everything I had to carry.
Another steward gave me some of the best advice I have received for calendar options. She said that she could not carry a heavy planner in her purse because the weight hurt her neck (I could relate). She said she used the pocket-size date book available from the union for stewards and officers. Each double page showed a monthly calendar. In the squares for each day she recorded her appointments and tracked her mileage. She said she just wrote small. She decided that once the little one inch+ square was full, she had enough to do that day.
I tried that, and found it was quick, easy and effective for me. I use a fine-tip pen and write small. Surprisingly to me, at my busiest, I was able to fit four to five appointments with miles in each daily square.
Weekly planners never worked for me because I hate flipping a bunch of pages to try to find out what I already have scheduled, and what is available. I even tried a PDA, and may even try a one again sometime now they have the touch-screens. But, once again, I did not like flipping from screen to screen to get the whole calendar picture. (Not only that, I was too slow with a stylus.) I need to see at least one full month at a time to have a feel for what I am doing each day or each week. I love my computer and other tech-toys, but the low-tech paper calendar is still on the top of my list of favorites.
What I quickly added to my little calendars as I received them each year from the union were paper pockets on the insides of each cover. I made them out of small letter envelopes sealed, cut in half and reinforced with tons of tape. I left as much paper uncoated as I could and recorded all kinds of entry codes, phone numbers and key information on those pockets. Each year I transferred the information I still needed from the old calendar to the new one, omitting the obsolete.
Now, about 10 years later, I am no longer a union steward representing hundreds of carriers and I am retired. But, I still use a pocket-size paper monthly calendar. I buy one with a plastic cover so that I still have my little pockets. About four years ago I found one inserted in a vinyl cover with extra fabric pockets and a pen-holder, so I buy my replacements to fit that. I love it. I will be sad when it wears out. My calendar with pockets is my paper brain and emergency kit. I use it to keep a lot of my important information--including my bill-paying cheat sheet--compactly in one place.
In many respects, January is geared toward organizing for the coming year. This becomes apparent while visiting many department and home improvement stores immediately after the holidays. A large variety of organizing supplies are featured.
I often joke that I am "laundry room" organized--everything is in piles, but I know which pile.
I believe I do have a good organizational mind. However, sometimes in practice, things do not always go as planned. I get too many piles going at the same time, or the piles get too high and slide into each other. Sometimes everything explodes into chaos. The only chance I have of avoiding this is to (a) acknowledge how I operate, and (b) set things up for success ahead of time based on that reality.
So, here are some things I have learned to help me better keep those piles organized:
Week one: Set up a streamlined filing system for financial records.
The operative word is "streamlined", as in, uncomplicated, quick, easy and convenient.
I have always had file folders for loan contracts, insurance policies, investments and employment. But, for paid receipts, most years I have used the "shoebox method". Then at the end of the year, I found myself with two piles going--one for the previous year's papers and one for the current year's papers--until I took a few marathon days to sort out all the previous year's receipts, etc. into 20 plus separate piles. It was a major project every year that I struggled to get done so I could file our taxes on time.
In the meantime, if I needed something from that pile, I had a lot of papers to dig through.
Last year, I cleaned out an entire drawer in our file cabinet next to where I pay the bills. I put in hanging file folders with labels rather than manila file folders jammed 4-5 deep inside of hanging folders. I kept the categories general. The eleven for current records were income, auto, banking, credit cards, donations, life insurance, medical, miscellaneous, mortgage (house), tax deductible and utilities. If we were still working, I probably would have added unreimbursed employee expenses.
Behind those folders I have one for contracts, terms of use and correspondence that will carry over from year to year. I also have one for capital improvement expenses to save against the day the house is sold.
In the very back I have a wide expanding file folder for warranties and user manuals. This has helped me find manuals for reference, as well as to put the user manual with an item when we sell it or give it away.
I made a point to keep the hanging file folders so they slide loosely on the rails, even in December. Because it is so easy to find the file and slide it open to insert a piece of paper, I have resisted the temptation to start another pile with my receipts because of my dread of "filing". Another thing that has helped is that as I pay my bills, I unfold all my statements and correspondence, throw away the advertising pages, and staple together the "keeper" pages. It keeps the files much neater and makes it easier for me to find something months after it has been added to a folder.
It also helps that some of my bills come electronically. I try to organize my files on the computer the same way I do in the file drawer. I have a "paid receipts" file, with a new document for each month. I periodically back my computer records to a flash drive.
One of my first official acts in 2010 was to take the 2009 receipts out of the hanging file folders and put them in manila folders in a office box that I will keep handy until after I file my taxes. As tax papers come this month, they will either go into the income folder or the tax deductible folder.
That way I can avoid starting another pile for my 2010 financial receipts because my hanging file folders are available for me from the beginning.
