Well, of course, I sort mail over the garbage can (figuratively speaking...there's a "keep" pile and a "toss" pile). But no doubt you already do that. I toss catalogs I know I will never order from, unless I really badly want to see what's in them (e.g., I always keep homeschooling catalogs). For example: I must get dozens of Coldwater Creek and Lands End catalogs every year. I toss those, because I can't afford anything but their deepest discounted stuff (with free shipping offers!!) and those offers come via e-mail.
The "keep" pile usually ends up in my Green Plastic Crate. Whenever I clear hotspots, I throw all papers in that crate. Stubs from bills paid, photos, bank statements, kids' drawings, cards from friends, charitable appeals I'm considering...EVERYTHING goes into the Green Crate. The reason I do that is because DH is continually asking me where this or that form or mailing or bill is. Now I always know precisely where it is...maybe not in which stratum, but I do know with near 100% certainty it's in the Green Crate. When it starts to overflow, or when I need to find a paper, I sort through the Dreaded Green Crate. By that time, my "keeps" are less appealing to me and I usually end up with a garbage bag or two of "toss." When I get sick of sorting, or find the paper I need, I quit sorting. I sort into piles: "file," "kids' artwork," "action," etc.
Kids' artwork: I have a flat underbed storage box that I placed under one of the boys' beds where I put the "keepers" from the kids' artwork. If you're more organized, you could date them and add the child's name (they become indistinguishable with the passage of time--LOL!). I usually forget.
Magazines: I read and then pass on to a friend. Sometimes I keep a Family Fun issue if I know I want to do a specific craft or project within. But most of that stuff is online, so usually--FLING! I like to re-read homeschooling issues, though. I have one single magazine holder that I keep homeschooling stuff in.
Filing: I file all medical-related papers into a hanging file with inidividual folders for each family member. That includes the sheet from the doctor's visit, the insurance EOB form, receipts, prescriptions, etc. All goes into that person's file. That way, I can reconstruct medical history any time I really need to. I file all of the month's paid bill stubs into one file: "monthly expenses." Eventually I toss these. Bank statements go into another file. Instructions and warranties and receipts for new gizmos are filed in a designated file drawer, divided into various categories: indoor, outdoor, small appliance, large appliance, electronics, baby equip., personal, etc. You can go through that once a year or so, or with every fling, and get rid of instructions for stuff you've tossed or are giving away.
Photos: I usually keep piled in a cupboard, and my dear DH is sorting through those for me, bless his heart. He's going to put them into photo albums someday.
Everything else I usually toss.
The hardest thing for me is letters and cards. I want to keep each and every letter and card that someone has handwritten me. I have two plastic containers in my storage room full of letters, cards, classroom notes, and papers I've written from the past 20-25 years of my life. I dread so much having to sort through it that I never do. I'm afraid I'll throw something away and regret it later. I hate facing that decision. I have often been glad my mother kept old letters, etc. It's not as if I have time to read them over and over, but someday my grandchildren might appreciate having a few of them. My mother has found old letters invaluable to her genealogical research.
I have often thought it might be nice to track down old friends and mail all their old letters back to them. Would that be a weird thing to do?
Somewhere on the 'net, years ago, I found out what kinds of papers to keep and what to throw away. For example, how many years of bank statements to keep, record keeping for taxes, etc. I'd have to research it again. Flylady gives examples of her personal file keeping on her site somewhere, but it might be different for you if you have home business expenses, etc. I think she tosses her stubs from bill paying, but I keep at least the last few months' worth. It helps to know how much my electricity bill has been over time. But I'll bet most of that could be tossed, since it shows up on the bank statement.
Probably if you just figured out: 1. What MUST be kept in a fireproof safe or safety deposit box; 2. What should be kept for taxes; 3. What you want to keep for your own info., you'd have it down to a manageable filing project. I have practically everything down to a small enough pile for one Green Crate now. It wasn't always so!
Finally, if you wanted a succinct answer, I apologize profusely.
Forgot about homeschooling papers. I don't know if you need this yet, but...
I use a clear plastic file container (the kind with a handle on top). I keep a VERY small "ideas" file (only those I really want to use), blank forms file, notes from seminars at convention, and copies of my completed intent-to-homeschool forms and attendance reports. The girls' writing practice, math practice, original artwork (8.5 x 11 only), monthly calendars, and spelling practice go into an individualized 3 ring binder. Each girl also has a separate 3-ring binder for science (our curriculum calls for one); and we also do a homemade history timeline in another 3-ring binder. I have a homeschooling notebook in which I have pre-filled-in blank attendance forms for each month of our school year, so all I have to do is mark it, sign it, copy it, tally how many days we've schooled, and mail it. I wish I'd done that last year: duh. I also keep a reading list of read-aloud books as we finish them, and 3-hole punch our homeschool group's newsletter to keep in there. I keep our h.s. group's phone list in there too.
As the girls complete their papers each day, I either file them right away in their "portfolios," or, more often, I pile them on my desk and do it all at once later on. That's about the only paper stuff that doesn't go into the Green Crate.
Stop the flow before it enters the living area of your house.
We have 3 spots paper can go to stay.
Hubby's basket-this is where all bills go. He finds them in there.
Calendar/Bulletin Board
In box for fileing.
Kids First.
We have a stop spot at front door(my recliner backs to the door)...where backpacks are emptied. Papers are tossed, signed or hung up. The ones for upcoming events are written on calendar and punched thru nail holding calendar. (for any extra info might need on that day, I clear these out as the day comes)
Hubby's Papers
He has stuff, that I have no idea what it is. I have a "basket" on his desk, for just those little strange things. The incoming bills go here also.
The rest??
I am a color coder filer, and anal retentive. But it is pretty, and well labeled and easier to find to file. Each kid has a color in one drawer.
My monthly/yearly billing is in another drawer
My Misc files (but well marked) is in another drawer. This is also in bunches. All of 2004 in one file hanger, etc...
I file once (yep, jut once) a month.
I get a Symphony Candy bar...large one and diet coke and listen to Good Music (usually Paul Simon or Bob Seger) and rock out with a card table and sort, then put in files.
AnneP.
A child enters your home and makes so much noise you can hardly stand it--then departs, leaving the house so quiet you think you'll go mad. -Dr. J.A. Holmes
Susannah, how often do you go through the dread Green Crate?
If I could get control of the paper flow in this house, it would be about 75% of the battle to keep it clean. Sadly, right now our house is about 90% paper.
I usually go through it whenever I need something from it. Once a month, probably. If I get my room nice and clean, and the bed made (my working surface), sometimes I just do it to get it done. That happens once every two or three months.
the 800 number or cutting out the address part and mailing it back with a note saying remove from list. It takes some time but you save yourself grief and a couple of trees.
Even with that I still have SOOOO much paper!
I do have a box oer kid for stuff and under the bed works great. They can pull it out and place their stuff in on there own when I ask them too.
I also have a hard time throwing out cards and letters so I have a pretty hat box that is in my room that I toss that stuff in. I go through it sometimes and throw out stuff or just go through the memories.
Bills are just a pain. I have a monthly file. At the end of the year they all go in a box that goes in the attic.
Laundry baskets are my sorter system. When the piles of paper start to get too large and numerous I go around with a laundry basket and chuck it all in. Then I sit down and sort them into a "keep" pile on the table and a "recycle" pile in a paper grocery bag. The recycle pile goes out on the curb on pick up day (LOVE curbside recycling), and the keep pile gets sorted into smaller piles: important info to file, bills, magazines, and other piles at need. Then the bill pile gets put into the bill organizer, the magazines get put on the bookshelf, the important stuff to get filed gets filed, etc.
If having a laundry basket full (or, in some cases two or more full laundry baskets) is too daunting, I will sort into keep and recycle as I'm going around so that when I'm done, all the stuff in the basket is keep.
Sometimes I just use an empty box of appropriate size, but I like laundry baskets because they're easy to carry. And even if you don't have time to take care of all the paperwork in one sitting, you can hide the basket until you do and your house looks nicer.
Was your question how to stop the inflow of paper? There are places you can write to to remove your name from junk mailing lists, kind of like a "do not mail" list.
Here's something:
Too much junk mail to deal with individually: Start by sending a postcard or letter to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 15012-0643 Include your complete name, address, zip code and a request to "activate the preference service". For up to five years, this will stop mail from all member organizations that you have not specifically ordered products from.
Direct Marketing Association at www.the-dma.org is another place to get your name off of advertising mailing lists.
Was that what your question was? That last sentence sounds grammatically screwed up, but I don't know why. It's been too long since my grammar classes.
______
I think that goes in.......you know your a mama when you have a white cardboard box that has "green crate" on the side of it and you think that is realistic organization...............oh how I totally get your logic!!!!! That is what scares me! I am giggling as I sit here.
I can just see my kids walking by as DH and I sit looking so proudly at our new organization and they see the box and say "Yup! They have lost it, they think that thing over there is a "Green Crate"!"
I need to go to bed........I'm sure this is not near as funny to anyone else but since I have been wrestling with office organization it just got to me.
I do open the mail over the actual trash can and I toss all envelopes and stuffers immediately; all catalogs I call the 800 number (usually a 24 hour number) and get removed immediately; and I do not keep school work except especially touching ones to be saved. Everything else is filed every week in a filing cabinet.
What got me was that we have about 5 bankers boxes in the garage filled with old filed papers. And my filing cabinet in the house needed purging but I hated the idea of getting another bankers box to clutter up the garage. So my stacks of vanilla folders that were filled and needing to be purged sat in a corner for a week when I finally decided to go through the boxes in the garage and see what was in them. I ended up tossing enough from the boxes in the garage to accomidate my files that I just purged from inside.
what did I toss that I had saved for years: files of paid medical bills, paid dental bills, repair invoices on cars we no longer owned, paid utility bills, accounting staements from accounts that had been closed for years! Why did I think I would need these at some point??? I have decided that each time I need to purge a file from inside the house to outside in the garage, I will see what can be tossed to make room and try to cut down on box clutter.
But yes, paper is every where and so senslessly abused...the trees, the landfills, our homes and our lives.
Oh, you caught me didn't you!!!! I alway imitate the kids when we sort all their stuff for school into manilla folders for over 18 yrs now and now I say vanilla without even realizing LOL
I should probably do it again. The trouble is, the minute I sign up for something online, or order from Lands End again, I'm right back on the mailing lists! LOL!
Comments
The Green Crate
Well, of course, I sort mail over the garbage can (figuratively speaking...there's a "keep" pile and a "toss" pile). But no doubt you already do that. I toss catalogs I know I will never order from, unless I really badly want to see what's in them (e.g., I always keep homeschooling catalogs). For example: I must get dozens of Coldwater Creek and Lands End catalogs every year. I toss those, because I can't afford anything but their deepest discounted stuff (with free shipping offers!!) and those offers come via e-mail.
The "keep" pile usually ends up in my Green Plastic Crate. Whenever I clear hotspots, I throw all papers in that crate. Stubs from bills paid, photos, bank statements, kids' drawings, cards from friends, charitable appeals I'm considering...EVERYTHING goes into the Green Crate. The reason I do that is because DH is continually asking me where this or that form or mailing or bill is. Now I always know precisely where it is...maybe not in which stratum, but I do know with near 100% certainty it's in the Green Crate. When it starts to overflow, or when I need to find a paper, I sort through the Dreaded Green Crate. By that time, my "keeps" are less appealing to me and I usually end up with a garbage bag or two of "toss." When I get sick of sorting, or find the paper I need, I quit sorting. I sort into piles: "file," "kids' artwork," "action," etc.
Kids' artwork: I have a flat underbed storage box that I placed under one of the boys' beds where I put the "keepers" from the kids' artwork. If you're more organized, you could date them and add the child's name (they become indistinguishable with the passage of time--LOL!). I usually forget.
Magazines: I read and then pass on to a friend. Sometimes I keep a Family Fun issue if I know I want to do a specific craft or project within. But most of that stuff is online, so usually--FLING! I like to re-read homeschooling issues, though. I have one single magazine holder that I keep homeschooling stuff in.
Filing: I file all medical-related papers into a hanging file with inidividual folders for each family member. That includes the sheet from the doctor's visit, the insurance EOB form, receipts, prescriptions, etc. All goes into that person's file. That way, I can reconstruct medical history any time I really need to. I file all of the month's paid bill stubs into one file: "monthly expenses." Eventually I toss these. Bank statements go into another file. Instructions and warranties and receipts for new gizmos are filed in a designated file drawer, divided into various categories: indoor, outdoor, small appliance, large appliance, electronics, baby equip., personal, etc. You can go through that once a year or so, or with every fling, and get rid of instructions for stuff you've tossed or are giving away.
Photos: I usually keep piled in a cupboard, and my dear DH is sorting through those for me, bless his heart. He's going to put them into photo albums someday.
Everything else I usually toss.
The hardest thing for me is letters and cards. I want to keep each and every letter and card that someone has handwritten me. I have two plastic containers in my storage room full of letters, cards, classroom notes, and papers I've written from the past 20-25 years of my life. I dread so much having to sort through it that I never do. I'm afraid I'll throw something away and regret it later. I hate facing that decision. I have often been glad my mother kept old letters, etc. It's not as if I have time to read them over and over, but someday my grandchildren might appreciate having a few of them. My mother has found old letters invaluable to her genealogical research.
I have often thought it might be nice to track down old friends and mail all their old letters back to them. Would that be a weird thing to do?
Somewhere on the 'net, years ago, I found out what kinds of papers to keep and what to throw away. For example, how many years of bank statements to keep, record keeping for taxes, etc. I'd have to research it again. Flylady gives examples of her personal file keeping on her site somewhere, but it might be different for you if you have home business expenses, etc. I think she tosses her stubs from bill paying, but I keep at least the last few months' worth. It helps to know how much my electricity bill has been over time. But I'll bet most of that could be tossed, since it shows up on the bank statement.
Probably if you just figured out: 1. What MUST be kept in a fireproof safe or safety deposit box; 2. What should be kept for taxes; 3. What you want to keep for your own info., you'd have it down to a manageable filing project. I have practically everything down to a small enough pile for one Green Crate now. It wasn't always so!
Finally, if you wanted a succinct answer, I apologize profusely.
Oops.
Forgot about homeschooling papers. I don't know if you need this yet, but...
I use a clear plastic file container (the kind with a handle on top). I keep a VERY small "ideas" file (only those I really want to use), blank forms file, notes from seminars at convention, and copies of my completed intent-to-homeschool forms and attendance reports. The girls' writing practice, math practice, original artwork (8.5 x 11 only), monthly calendars, and spelling practice go into an individualized 3 ring binder. Each girl also has a separate 3-ring binder for science (our curriculum calls for one); and we also do a homemade history timeline in another 3-ring binder. I have a homeschooling notebook in which I have pre-filled-in blank attendance forms for each month of our school year, so all I have to do is mark it, sign it, copy it, tally how many days we've schooled, and mail it. I wish I'd done that last year: duh. I also keep a reading list of read-aloud books as we finish them, and 3-hole punch our homeschool group's newsletter to keep in there. I keep our h.s. group's phone list in there too.
As the girls complete their papers each day, I either file them right away in their "portfolios," or, more often, I pile them on my desk and do it all at once later on. That's about the only paper stuff that doesn't go into the Green Crate.
Paper Flow
Stop the flow before it enters the living area of your house.
We have 3 spots paper can go to stay.
Hubby's basket-this is where all bills go. He finds them in there.
Calendar/Bulletin Board
In box for fileing.
Kids First.
We have a stop spot at front door(my recliner backs to the door)...where backpacks are emptied. Papers are tossed, signed or hung up. The ones for upcoming events are written on calendar and punched thru nail holding calendar. (for any extra info might need on that day, I clear these out as the day comes)
Hubby's Papers
He has stuff, that I have no idea what it is. I have a "basket" on his desk, for just those little strange things. The incoming bills go here also.
The rest??
I am a color coder filer, and anal retentive. But it is pretty, and well labeled and easier to find to file. Each kid has a color in one drawer.
My monthly/yearly billing is in another drawer
My Misc files (but well marked) is in another drawer. This is also in bunches. All of 2004 in one file hanger, etc...
I file once (yep, jut once) a month.
I get a Symphony Candy bar...large one and diet coke and listen to Good Music (usually Paul Simon or Bob Seger) and rock out with a card table and sort, then put in files.
AnneP.
A child enters your home and makes so much noise you can hardly stand it--then departs, leaving the house so quiet you think you'll go mad. -Dr. J.A. Holmes
OK, how often?
Susannah, how often do you go through the dread Green Crate?
If I could get control of the paper flow in this house, it would be about 75% of the battle to keep it clean. Sadly, right now our house is about 90% paper.
Shaun
Um, well, I'm not sure.
I usually go through it whenever I need something from it. Once a month, probably. If I get my room nice and clean, and the bed made (my working surface), sometimes I just do it to get it done. That happens once every two or three months.
I too used to get catalogs out the wazoo but I started calling
the 800 number or cutting out the address part and mailing it back with a note saying remove from list. It takes some time but you save yourself grief and a couple of trees.
Even with that I still have SOOOO much paper!
I do have a box oer kid for stuff and under the bed works great. They can pull it out and place their stuff in on there own when I ask them too.
I also have a hard time throwing out cards and letters so I have a pretty hat box that is in my room that I toss that stuff in. I go through it sometimes and throw out stuff or just go through the memories.
Bills are just a pain. I have a monthly file. At the end of the year they all go in a box that goes in the attic.
Jana
Laundry baskets
Laundry baskets are my sorter system. When the piles of paper start to get too large and numerous I go around with a laundry basket and chuck it all in. Then I sit down and sort them into a "keep" pile on the table and a "recycle" pile in a paper grocery bag. The recycle pile goes out on the curb on pick up day (LOVE curbside recycling), and the keep pile gets sorted into smaller piles: important info to file, bills, magazines, and other piles at need. Then the bill pile gets put into the bill organizer, the magazines get put on the bookshelf, the important stuff to get filed gets filed, etc.
If having a laundry basket full (or, in some cases two or more full laundry baskets) is too daunting, I will sort into keep and recycle as I'm going around so that when I'm done, all the stuff in the basket is keep.
Sometimes I just use an empty box of appropriate size, but I like laundry baskets because they're easy to carry. And even if you don't have time to take care of all the paperwork in one sitting, you can hide the basket until you do and your house looks nicer.
_____
May The Hair On Your Toes Never Fall Out
--Traditional Hobbit Blessing
Or,
Was your question how to stop the inflow of paper? There are places you can write to to remove your name from junk mailing lists, kind of like a "do not mail" list.
Here's something:
Too much junk mail to deal with individually: Start by sending a postcard or letter to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 15012-0643 Include your complete name, address, zip code and a request to "activate the preference service". For up to five years, this will stop mail from all member organizations that you have not specifically ordered products from.
Direct Marketing Association at www.the-dma.org is another place to get your name off of advertising mailing lists.
I got this stuff at "Do-it-yourself: Stop Junk Mail..." website at www.obviously.com/junkmail.
Was that what your question was? That last sentence sounds grammatically screwed up, but I don't know why. It's been too long since my grammar classes.
______
May The Hair On Your Toes Never Fall Out
--Traditional Hobbit Blessing
Our new "Green Crate" . . .
. . . is a white cardboard box that says "Green Crate" on the sides in black Magic Marker.
I told DH about Susannah's idea and how then at least we'd only have one pile of papers to dig through. Seemed realistic enough!
That's my baby step toward organization for today!
Shaun
Shaun, you cracked me up........
I think that goes in.......you know your a mama when you have a white cardboard box that has "green crate" on the side of it and you think that is realistic organization...............oh how I totally get your logic!!!!! That is what scares me! I am giggling as I sit here.
I can just see my kids walking by as DH and I sit looking so proudly at our new organization and they see the box and say "Yup! They have lost it, they think that thing over there is a "Green Crate"!"
I need to go to bed........I'm sure this is not near as funny to anyone else but since I have been wrestling with office organization it just got to me.
Jana
Shaun, you are hilarious!
I totally see the logic, too. Hopefully that means this system will work for you.
I have the same problem...
paper, paper and more paper!
I do open the mail over the actual trash can and I toss all envelopes and stuffers immediately; all catalogs I call the 800 number (usually a 24 hour number) and get removed immediately; and I do not keep school work except especially touching ones to be saved. Everything else is filed every week in a filing cabinet.
What got me was that we have about 5 bankers boxes in the garage filled with old filed papers. And my filing cabinet in the house needed purging but I hated the idea of getting another bankers box to clutter up the garage. So my stacks of vanilla folders that were filled and needing to be purged sat in a corner for a week when I finally decided to go through the boxes in the garage and see what was in them. I ended up tossing enough from the boxes in the garage to accomidate my files that I just purged from inside.
what did I toss that I had saved for years: files of paid medical bills, paid dental bills, repair invoices on cars we no longer owned, paid utility bills, accounting staements from accounts that had been closed for years! Why did I think I would need these at some point??? I have decided that each time I need to purge a file from inside the house to outside in the garage, I will see what can be tossed to make room and try to cut down on box clutter.
But yes, paper is every where and so senslessly abused...the trees, the landfills, our homes and our lives.
Shawna
Mother to seven
Author of Intimate Reflections
www.Xlibris.com/IntimateReflections
Shawna-I had to laugh at the
Shawna-I had to laugh at the vanilla folders...I used to think that was what they were called too!
LOL
Oh, you caught me didn't you!!!! I alway imitate the kids when we sort all their stuff for school into manilla folders for over 18 yrs now and now I say vanilla without even realizing LOL
Shawna
Mother to seven
Author of Intimate Reflections
www.Xlibris.com/IntimateReflections
vanilla folders
My husband called them that until about a year ago... for real!
I did that once
I should probably do it again. The trouble is, the minute I sign up for something online, or order from Lands End again, I'm right back on the mailing lists! LOL!
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