Organization - Winning the never ending paper battle

We recently added a huge piece of furniture to our family and it has exacerbated an already losing battle. It is a beautiful post master's desk with a nice flat surface area. I don't know about your house, but at ours where there is flat space there is paper!! We have mail coming in everyday, school papers for Ethan, church papers from all of us, receipts and coupons.

The Post Master's Desk

While reading Tsh's book "One Bite at a Time" I was inspired to rethink how we handle paper in our house. Project 7  in this book was to downsize your book and magazine collection, 8 was managing your mail and 9 was streamlining your receipts. All of these tips made me want to tackle our paper problem. With all of these categories I think the first thing we all should consider is what comes in to our house. Tsh talks about the fact that if we stop the paper before it makes its way in to the house then we don't have to organize it! One of the things I need to get better at is not bringing home receipts. More than half of the receipts I'm handed during the week can be put directly in the trash!  The same thing goes for mail...before you set the mail down in your house sort through it and throw the trash away immediately!

Note - This is not technically a "before" picture since I took the huge amounts of paper out before I took it.

We have a organizing device on our desk, but it never seems to organize anything in a way that is accessible. I've fixed that by coming up with categories of paper that comes in and I've made folders for these categories. Now the folders can be pulled out and papers can be filed and accessed easily!  For me this works better than a "home notebook".  I like everything in one place, but I don't want it all together all the time.

School folder with calendar taped to the outside.

A place to keep all of our school handouts.  I'll bring this folder with me to school meetings and such.

Final organized desk! 

My folders include:

• River's Edge - a place for school newsletters as well as handouts from meetings and such.
• Correspondence and bills - a place for all bills or other piece of mail that needs a response from me.
• Money - we don't get bank statements by mail, but I do get quarterly reports from Philip's retirement plan and occasionally we get other important financial papers.
• Love folder - this is not done, but having it here helps to remind me to work on it!

Down at the bottom is also my half-size clipboard that holds sermon notes.  To the right of this desk there is a notebook on the bookshelf that contains room for papers dealing with current projects.  Currently it has a folder for coupons and one for the boys birthday party.  Next to it is a small notebook where I can keep receipts that need to be kept for a time (birthday gifts and such).  Also not shown is a magazine holder for all of the magazines I need to look through (save that project for another day).

I know none of this is new, but I hope I inspire you to tackle your paper problem.  We will see how well this works in the upcoming weeks.

Does anyone have tips for school papers??  In the fall Ethan will be in Kindergarten and I know he will be bringing home worksheets everyday.  I know he worked hard on these, but we can't keep them!  Do you have a grace period before you chunk something?

RSS Reader

Sometime last year my friend Meg introduced me to a beautiful thing....an RSS reader.  Now, I consider myself a technical gal.  I like pretty much all things technology and I had heard of an RSS feed before.  I had seen the little RSS icon:

But what is it?  How do you use it?  Well, that my friends is what I'm about to tell you.  RSS stands for RDF site summary, but really it means updates from a website sent straight to your feed (we'll get to what a feed is in a minute).  I love to read multiple blogs.  I have friends who have blogs, but I also love blogs of people I don't know, but that have really interesting content.  An RSS feed allows you to receive all of the updates from all of the blogs that you like to read in one place.  Think of it like a subscription to all of your favorite blogs or websites.  Instead of having to search out new content from the places you like, all of the new updates are sent directly to you!

Where is this "place" that the updates are sent?  Most blogs will allow you to receive email updates, but what is neat about readers is that they do not clog up your email inbox.  Instead the updates are stored in a second location and you can read them at your leisure.  I am currently registered with Google Reader.  Google Reader is where I subscribe to all the different blogs that I like.  Anytime any of my favorite blogs posts something new the updates come straight to my reader.  Now, I can read these updates on any computer (since Google is internet based), but I choose to read them on my iPad using a free app called Mobile RSS.  This app downloads my recent updates to my iPad and allows me to read items in my feed even when I am not connected to the internet (score!).

If you like to read multiple blogs I really think using a reader can simply your life and cut down on the amount of time you just "poke" on the internet.  Once you are signed up with a reader service add the blogs you like by typing in the web addresses or just look for the RSS symbol above and subscribe!  Here is what the icon for Google reader looks like:
 
Do you use an RSS reader that isn't Mobile RSS or Google Reader?  I'd love to hear about the different readers that are out there.

Family Organizing Corner

This week officially begins our journey into the education system.  It will last for at least the next 15 years and I'm a little apprehensive to see what it will be like.  In anticipation of this day a few weeks back I took everything down off our refrigerator and re-made it into a family organizing center.  Let me show you what I mean:

 I'll explain the corner from top left moving clockwise and ending on the bottom left.

• First I have "Wise Words for Moms". For a full explanation of this chart you'll have to read my other post.
• Next is a calendar that I picked up from Borders.  I love that is has the "at a glance" week view that I can fill in at the bottom.  I plan on using this with Ethan to show him how the week progresses.  To the right of the week view is a note pad which I like too!
• Next are two copies of my meal planning worksheet.  They are both folded in half.  On the left is this week's meal schedule and on the right is next week's grocery list.
• Finally there is a magnetic clip where Philip can put the bills.  We lost a bill a couple of months ago and I hate paying late fees!  Now there is a convienent obvious place to put and store bills until they get paid.

How do you keep your family organized during hectic seasons of life?  I'd love to see your ideas!

Learning Scripture

These are two great CDs that our family just loves:
     

These CDs have scripture set to music in a way that is fun for all members of the family.  It is one of those CDs that I don't mind listening to over and over.  And besides teaching your children scripture, you will memorize it too!  On Amazon you can either order the actual CD or download the MP3 albums.  They are worth every penny!