What better way to spend your St. Patrick's Day than cleaning out your home office, right? Would it be easier if you were drinking a green beer??? (*blech*) Okay, how about corned beef and cabbage?
No? Me neither. Wait, we're here to talk about decluttering! Sorry...I'm getting off track...
For most of us, this day's assignment for the Spring Cleaning Challenge is a doozy. Personally, it took me three days...and I still don't really feel "done." I should clarify that it was three days long because I kept avoiding it and moving on to Day 14...then Day 15...then realized it was going to take me a while to do, so I'd better hurry up and dive in before March 17th came and I had no post typed up because I hadn't done the work. (*groan*)
SO I just did it. Pile by pile, paper by paper, piece by piece. I recycled two huge grocery sacks full of paperwork and have another huge pile to shred. I found a purchased warranty (that I turned the house upside down looking for...in 2008) that was good for 15 months, but expired more than a year ago. Wanna know where it was? In the "to be filed" pile. Wanna know what is never going to grace my desk again? A "to be filed" pile!!! I'm now on the "file it right away" bandwagon with my husband. I'm kicking myself for that mistake.
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| Before - Megadesk in all of its glory. The monstrously spacious top is a transition space for items coming upstairs or needing to go downstairs. |
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| After - Seeing this picture allows me to take a nice, deep breath. Can you see the cubbies above the computer screen? Half of them are empty!!! |
The cubbies in our hutch all have been sorted through, which is huge. They're the "out of sight, out of mind" black holes of our office. For example, one cubby is for school stuff, so when I get random school paperwork, or anything for the kids, for that matter, it gets shoved in there. Eventually, I go through and get things where they belong, but I know that when I need something for the kids, it's likely in that pile. The other cubbies have their purpose, too, but the piles hadn't been touched in ages. Until this project, that is!
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| Before - The rest of the office. That back corner is packed full of clutter! |
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| After - Again, AAHHH! |
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| I got rid of tons of boxes that I've saved for a potential eBay-purging-project that's no longer on my priority list. |
Once I went through all of the paperwork in nooks and crannies, I moved to my computer and cleaned up my Outlook folders a bit. It felt SO good to check things off of the to-do list that have been lingering for weeks...even months!
I still haven't gone through the abyss under my desk. That will have to be during my catch-up this weekend. This is the first assignment that I raced to finish before the posting deadline...most others have been done days in advance!
I still haven't gone through the abyss under my desk. That will have to be during my catch-up this weekend. This is the first assignment that I raced to finish before the posting deadline...most others have been done days in advance!
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| I'll finish this part over the weekend. See the cute little nook where my legs fit under the computer? The rest of the space is packed to capacity! |
If you posted about your own Spring Cleaning progress, please feel free to link up below!
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4 comments:
Girl, my hat is off to you! I have been putting off getting our office space(s) decluttered and organized for MONTHS. You may have just inspired me...then again...I may just wait till summer....
: )
Looks great Katie! Thank you for sharing. :)
K...I just finished my office. Well, sort of. We have been so "off" this week with both kids sick that I can't begin to tell you what a miserable mood everyone has been in. Haven't gotten much done.
Anyways, in cleaning my office I have been hoarding a lot of Kaiden's school projects in my file drawer. It is now to the point of overflowing and I don't know where to put it all. I have thrown a lot of his projects out, but there are a bunch that I still like to keep. Any suggestions as to where to store it? Display it? I display a lot on a bulletin board at my office station in the kitchen and rotate stuff, but still there's a lot. HELP!
I'm going to post about something along these lines soon, but until then, I thought I'd share how I deal with my 'To Be Filed' pile. Because let's be honest, it's not always easy or practical to file everything immediately.
I use a plastic 'expanding file' or 'accordian file' (whatever you like to call it) that has about a dozen pockets. Each one is labeled with cell phone, gas/electricity, payslips, warranties, etc. As I deal with each kind of bill/reminder/whatever, I then 'file' them temporarily in this folder. Then I have a reminder set up automatically on my computer's calendar that tells me once a month it's File/Shred day. It takes about 5-10 minutes on that day to get out all the ring binders that I 'really' file everything into, hole punch the papers, and put them away where they belong.
I know this seems inefficient as I'm filing twice (sort of), but it works really well. There are no stray papers anywhere at any time, I don't have to lug out the hole punch and 14 different ring binders on a daily basis, yet everything is always filed where it lives, whether that's its temporary or permanent home.
Good luck with your newfound filing!
xoxoxooxoxo
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