Paper challenge before and after
So after 3 weeks and life being life we finally have the desk moved and organized. The desk was a landing spot for anything that was brought into the kitchen... papers, food, dishes clean and dirty. I'd clean it off to use the computer and two days later it would look like the picture below again. And to add to it the mail was usually set down on a side table in the livingroom to pile up and never brought in here to the desk to be filed or thrown away. Here is the before and after:
Before
After
We went through the filing cabinet and took out all the old statements then made up all the folders we thought we would need. We moved all of Marie's gardening magazines to a binder and stuck it on top of the desk. I found a little box and labeled it for receipts. I also labeled the office supplies box. I also moved the wall organizer in here for the bills. So the idea is who ever checks the mail goes through it when they come in the house and throws away any junk mail, puts any bills in the wall organizer, files anything they know needs filed and anything they are unsure about goes into the persons mail tray. That is the ideal system. And we will tweak it where necessary.
We still have a couple things to do. I've got to make up the list of bills and numbers. I want to get a shredder and maybe a small trash can to set next to it. I also want to put a plant or something on top, maybe a printer... I need to label the mail trays. And I want to find something better for the receipts. Also Marie still has to go through some of her papers and file them. Also we have something of a "Sunday basket". The mail keeps getting put on the dining table and then we go through it at dinner time. So I thought to maybe put a decorative dish or box on the table to hold the mail til we go through it each night. Also the walls in the picture look a little drab so might have to do something about that.
Before
After
We went through the filing cabinet and took out all the old statements then made up all the folders we thought we would need. We moved all of Marie's gardening magazines to a binder and stuck it on top of the desk. I found a little box and labeled it for receipts. I also labeled the office supplies box. I also moved the wall organizer in here for the bills. So the idea is who ever checks the mail goes through it when they come in the house and throws away any junk mail, puts any bills in the wall organizer, files anything they know needs filed and anything they are unsure about goes into the persons mail tray. That is the ideal system. And we will tweak it where necessary.
We still have a couple things to do. I've got to make up the list of bills and numbers. I want to get a shredder and maybe a small trash can to set next to it. I also want to put a plant or something on top, maybe a printer... I need to label the mail trays. And I want to find something better for the receipts. Also Marie still has to go through some of her papers and file them. Also we have something of a "Sunday basket". The mail keeps getting put on the dining table and then we go through it at dinner time. So I thought to maybe put a decorative dish or box on the table to hold the mail til we go through it each night. Also the walls in the picture look a little drab so might have to do something about that.