The Quest For Organization

Often when I am out, I hear the phrase "You sure have your hands full!" or "I don't know how you do it!". This is usually accompanied by a look of amazement. When this occurs while out with just the little Bears, I often laugh and reply "I have another one at school!". This usually results in a deer in headlights look. Why am I so relaxed about this? Well, aside from the fact that I wanted these babies with every particle of my being, I'm not as stressed as everyone seems to think I should be because I am organized! Well...somewhat. There are, alas, some large areas of my life that seem to constantly laugh at me behind my back. Papers are my biggest nemesis, followed closely by books and art supplies. Oh, and the never ending stream of art projects produced by crafty Big Sister Bear.

I did not grow up in an organized home (sorry, Mom and Dad!). Every bit of organization I know, I have had to painfully learn as an adult. I have learned so very much from Fly Lady (http://flylady.com/). Her routines have been my saving grace since Big Sister Bear was born, and really saved me when Brother and Small Bears joined us. But since I am still tormented by areas of my life that Fly Lady has not helped me with, I was thrilled when I learned that this month's twins club meeting was going to have a presentation by a professional organizer!

The presentation was very useful, and she tried to touch on a lot of topics that members had indicated they need help with. One of the areas she spent a lot of time with was papers, and since I am now implementing her method in this area, I will talk about that today. Her method to keeping control of papers is to file them into a few folders. The purpose of the folders is to allow you to keep track of the things that you need to do (i.e. action items) .

These are the folders that she suggests:

• Action Items - you can either have one folder for all action items, or one each for High, Medium, and Low Priority. High = complete by end of week, Med = complete within 2-3 weeks, Low = complete by end of month.
• Next Month - for action items that you don't need to address right now.
• Taxes - all paperwork for taxes go here, including receipts and any needed bank statements.
• Bills - this is obvious, but she also suggests keeping a check book, stamps, return address labels, etc in this folder so everything is there when you need it.
  
• In Process - for things that are pending, for example an insurance claim that you are waiting to be processed, or a rebate that you have sent in. Once they are processed, you can remove them from this folder.

To this list I have added a Medical folder since we file our receipts for reimbursement with our Healthcare Reimbursement Account. She suggests using pocket folders so that the papers can't easily fall out the sides.

She also suggests that we create "Project Folders". For example, we are currently looking at schools for Big Sister Bear. All papers relating to that search (school pamphlets, enrollment forms, etc) go in that folder. When we are done with the project, we can easily toss anything we no longer need. Another example would be all tickets, reservations, etc for a trip. When you return, throw it all away. She suggests see through plastic closable folders for projects.

I am currently sorting through my stacks of papers to put them into the folders. My kitchen already looks better. I will be keeping my folders in a tiered rack. We'll see how this method works long term, but so far I am very happy with it. It breaks things down into manageable groups, but isn't so granular that it becomes a burden.

Maybe in an upcoming blog I will talk about her suggestions for all that artwork!