Need Help! Paperwork Crisis!

My house used to be a constant mess. Ok, it still is a constant mess, but it’s a tidiable (is that a word?) mess with an organised undercurrent. Having kids was probably the making of me in that department. I got so bogged and frustrated and upset that I went looking for help. I found FLYlady and did a lot of journaling and soul-searching about the role of a stay-at-home Mum (not all cupcakes and day-time television). I began to go to bed with a cleared kitchen, make my bed straight after getting up, clean something in the bathroom while waiting for the shower to warm, empty the dishwasher whilst the jug was boiling for my cup-of-tea and use a calendar….just those little things that some people know instinctively how to do to stay on top of life and some people (me!) need to learn.

In the spirit of full disclosure - here are my fugly bits.  Piles of paper everywhere!  And  there are other piles hiding in other spots around the house!

But I haven’t ever really got on top of my paperwork. Yuck. I hate it. But crunch time has come. Why? Because, for the life of me, I can’t find the kids birth certificates and I need them. That’s not good. I could order new ones (at $25 a pop) but that’s not really solving the problem, is it?

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that being organised with paperwork can save you time, help you be frugal, and keep on top of life in general.

I’m thinking of making goals – they seem to work for me. Do I dare ration my quilting time? For example: no quilting until I've done 15 minutes filing? Argh! It would probably work, but I think I have deeper issues, which are hijacking my attempts to stay on-top of paperwork. I don’t think I have a proper filing system sorted. Bits go here and bits go there and I have a big pile of ‘miscellaneous’! I don’t know how to sort stuff and how to store it.

So, tell me, how do you do it? What categories do you file stuff under? What techniques have worked for you (or not!)? Please! Anything you think will help me out. We’ve upgraded our computer after eeking out our current one for eight + years and I’ve decided I’m not allowed to open the box until my desk is clear!

The kidlets and I embarked on a baking adventure - chocolate cupcakes from my sister's blog, Just This Side of Chaos. A little bit dry, because I used milk instead of sour cream, I think. So I iced them to make them a little more appealing.



Well, I don't know how appealing that gruesome icing is but I was experimenting to see if I could get a pink without food colouring. Sure can - blackcurrant syrup! Makes for a very sweet icing, but that doesn't bother the kiddies one little bit! And, um, I think I need to work on my icing technique.




Then this little bland pic is from today. I've wanted a big, like REALLY big, calendar for ages. I found one one Flylady (can't post a link, it doesn't seem to like me at the mo), but really didn't want to pay the US dollars and then the postage . So I sat down at the computer and it didn't take me long to have a one-month-per-two-page template. Some number inputting and a bit of glue-stick later and I have my own personalised calendar. Now I'm just that little bit more organised.

The folder in the background is my control journal (thanks to Flylady again). It was my life saver when going back to work with a changing roster. It has my week planner, my daycare schedule, my month-by-month calendar, my master grocery shopping list and my to-do lists in it (I never got right into the whole 'zone cleaning' thing of Flylady). But it's not so convenient for my husband to see at a glance what is happening when. Hence the REALLY big wall calendar.

Now I'm still using my control journal, but this is now also where I'm adding my bits and pieces of knowledge that I've found, like green cleaners. I wrote about my worries about losing access to all that wisdom here.


It was my MIL's birthday a little while ago and I got all enthusiastic and made her a present wrap to put her present in. It's made of christmassy fabric on one side - for use at Christmas time - or is that completely obvious? And flowery fabric on the other for non-specific occasions. Right sides together, sew, turn out then topstitch the edge. Simple and effective. Goodbye rolls of garish, designed-to-be-thrown-out, wrapping paper. Thanks Towards Sustainability.

Progress!

So two weeks ago, my new house looked like this.

We employed a builder pretty cheaply who was desperate for work (thank you recession). And it seems he's been working his butt off, because yesterday we went out to the land (our name for our little piece of paradise, I'll have to think up something fancy like 'skylark ridge'!) and this is what I found:

Yes, we have a floor and a couple of bedrooms for the kids all framed up. Wow! It is actually going to happen. It is kinda scary when I look around the house that I am in and contemplate packing it all up. So I'm hooking into the FLYlady's theory on decluttering and her other theory on 15 minutes at a time.

FLYlady is a bit over the top for some people, but I've found she has got some good ideas and my house and life are definitely more organised since finding her! The 15 minute thing is just that you can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes. It keeps you focused and stops you whining. I use it all the time when I don't feel motivated, or have lots to do and don't know where to start, or even just to make sure I don't spend too much time on the net! I just set my kitchen timer (or the one on my computer) for 15 minutes and get stuck in. If I have lots of tasks and want to procrastinate by quilting, I quilt for 15 minutes, work for 15, quilt for 15, work for 15.......get the picture?