Tuesday, October 12, 2010

How Do Y'All Do It?

Well, I guess you could misinterpret my title, so I'll just take that risk. I love organization. I thrive when I am most organized. I love for everything to have a place and to be in it. However, God has a sense of humor. He sent us triplets. Then He sent us two more little loves. I would not trade our 5 blessings for ANYTHING and I do mean ANYTHING. I adore our children and my husband. I am so thankful for them. However, I lost the battle when the triplets were born. I just couldn't keep things perfect (not that I had ever done so perfectly).
Paper takes over my house. I save recipes, slips of paper with addresses on it, special cards or letters, notes from the children, and bills. I am the CFO of our family, so I pay (or sometimes forget to pay) all of our bills. I love to write letters so I enjoy fun paper. I grew up with parents who were smart and saved their money for big things. They taught me how to find another use for things. Many hours are spent purging each week, but it's never enough. I've collected more than 10 bags of giveaway items in recent months, but we still need more closet space. I've thrown away collections of snail shells, little itty bitty pencils and pieces of paper, and broken toys. I've taken all of the old t-shirts out of my closet and tried to keep only what I will truly wear. New file folders and filing systems have been implemented. Evenings are spent tidying drawers and closets, putting away clean clothes, and throwing away old receipts. Yet it's never enough. If I open a drawer and it's messy, I stop everything and clean it out and re-organize it. I love to clean. The housekeeper is me. If I'm helping a child in the bath, I'll clean the sink and toilet or put away laundry. In other words, I really do spend my time wisely. But the paper haunts me. How do you do it? Please share some ideas with Mama Henley!

5 comments:

Sweet Southern Prep said...

I have a place to put my bills, and save them in the small drawer for the entire month, and then pay them online, all at the same time, to keep it organized.

As for the endless to-do lists, I create them on my blackberry, and delete each task when I finish it. So no paper scattered everywhere.

I don't save receipts, unless it's clothing or big items. With all of those, I keep them in a small rubbermaid box.

Once you have places to put each piece of paper, it's much easier, and much more organized! Hope this helps! :)

Preppy Pink Crocodile said...

One of the smartest things I have done is quit tearing out recipes from magazines. I have a word doc that I save links to recipes I like online. And have you noticed that I post recipes a lot on the blog? That is specificially for myself so that I can find favorites later. I would hoard recipes on paper otherwise.

Aundrea said...

I am so glad you asked these questions. I have been wondering the same thing lately. :/

Suzanne said...

It's a constant battle here, stuff piles up quickly. We're lucky to have a large office space in our house that serves as our command post for all things financial and/or important. We save receipts and purge after 3-6 months.

I'm constantly going through stacks of magazines, school work, clothing and toys. We try to have a yearly yard sale and also donate quite a bit to the Salvation Army.

You're not alone...even with just two kids, it
still piles up!

Debra said...

I wish I had an answer for you. We have tons of paper here, too. I do get some of my bills on line and pay them on line so that helps a bit with the paper.

I also have a portable file box - it's plastic and holds hanging folders- I have a folder for each 'vendor'- mortgage, electric, water, etc. Any correspondence I get goes in the appropriate folder as well as paid bills. It gets purged at the end of the year (usually!)and put in a cardboard banker's box in the garage.

I feel like I am forever weeding out clothes and toys and there's always more!