File It!

Organization 101. I'm taking baby steps and my first step last week was to organize my paperwork. All of it! I have small piles of paper all over it seems like because I don't know what to do with it and I have other places where paper is stashed because it seemed like a good place to put it at the time or there wasn't anywhere else that it could call home. It drove me crazy!

So last week I set out to get all my paper corralled in a file box. I started with a plan. Something I had never tried before! I wanted a limited number of categories, but I wanted them to be meaningful so here's what I came up with:
Red Folders are Active Files
Yellow Folders are Personal files
Green Folders are Home and Property
Blue Folders are Financial
Purple folders are Taxes and Legal Papers

Then I decided what would go in each category. For example the active folders contain to do cards, gift cards, unopened mail, tickler files with a folder for each month - stuff like that. The Active folders should be reviewed on a weekly basis. Personal files have notes, decorating clippings I want to keep, goals and that kind of stuff. Home and Property has several folders that contain warranty and user guides, a home inventory file, bank loan papers, etc. Financial folders contain a folder that has each month and I drop all receipts for the month in it. And finally the Taxes and Legal Papers have copies of wills, estate papers and our annual taxes. Stuff like that.

I don't know that it's a perfect system, but here's what I do know. If you ask me to find a paper related to something and it's filed, I know where it is. I'm still finding a few of my paper stashes around and filing them has been really quick and not something so much dread.

That in itself feels good. and you wanna know a secret - it's one of those things that I sneak peeks at when I need some motivation.

Next up - the bathroom/hall cupboard.

So...A blog

Why a blog? I guess to hold me accountable and to share my journey maybe some fun along the way.  While I would think that I'll talk about alot of topics on here...I think I'm going to focus on some major themes for awhile...

• Weight loss - I have about 70 lbs to misplace. If I can lose my keys on a nearly daily basis, I should be able to lose a few pounds each week. 
• Home cleaning and organizations - Yikes, don't even ask. We'll start at the front door and move toward the back of the house.
• Cooking - I'm not great at this, I'm okay at this. I want to be better at this, my family wishes I was better at this. I also want to build in some variety. We'll look at meal planning, dish prep, keeping it simple..
• Family - I'll talk about Stink-eye and hubs.  We can laugh and cry together.  I probably need alot of advice. Love 'em both and they are a big part of my life, how can we not talk about them.  They can read the blog if they'd like. 
• Gardens and plants - I am growing my first garden this year.  And I planted a few flowers.  I'm more excited by the function of the garden than the beauty of the flowers. That's probably my bigger focus on growing.
• Canning, projects, trying new things - so I can alot in the summer and fall. We'll talk about it. I have a house that has no walls in it, we are working on that, but a few things have to be done first, like insulation and wiring - I hate all that, but get to help...so we'll talk about bringing it back and then making it a home. And we'll try some new things that I haven't done really well yet.
• Whatever else we think of.

BTW, I will take pictures...I'm not a photographer. I don't pretend to be one, and I don't play one anywhere.  But I think blogs are  more fun with pictures.  Maybe I'll learn some stuff about that and I'll get better, but for now, they are just pictures.