Organizing

We have one cabinet in the kitchen for most of our food, but I have to stand on a chair to reach the back of it. 

We decided to turn the wall under the cabinets into useful storage space, with easy access to food for cooking. 

Since everything is on full display, I wanted it to be visually appealing as well.

When I first looked for canisters, I couldn’t believe how expensive they can be. It makes no sense to me. I decided to go with canning jars in an assortment of pint, quart and half-gallon sizes.

Why I love them:

• Inexpensive (one or two dollars each, sometimes free)
• Glass doesn’t absorb food odors or stains
• No concerns about plastic
• Stackable (especially in the wide-mouth size)
• Easy to see if you’re about to run out of something
• Versatile to hold utensils and other odds and ends
• Smaller sizes store leftovers or snack portions

Putting the jars on display really warmed up the space, and they made the whole kitchen look better. The jars are found at Ace Hardware and some grocery stores, and I stick with the same lid size so they’re interchangeable. I sometimes label them with a piece of scotch tape and a permanent marker.

We used two shelves ($5 from IKEA), one on each side of the stove. With anchors in the wall, they’re very sturdy to hold six quart or pint jars. It’s so much easier to just reach for something you need, and have it right there.

If you could come over and visit this morning, you’d get to see our Christmas decorations. And have some coffee. There’s always coffee. 

Hanging Christmas ornaments is one of our favorite traditions, but in our apartment there is absolutely no room for a tree. We do the next best thing: our collection is displayed on a garland over the fireplace. I love seeing them all together this way. 

All of our Christmas decorations are stored in one blue box, and it’s a fun event to unpack it each year. 

Because it’s just one box, Doug is totally on board with helping to decorate.

So is Lane.

This year Doug took her shopping for an ornament to start her own collection.

We put a wreath in her room, and she hung her new little ornament on it.

We hope to add one more for her each year. She didn’t seem to mind only having one ornament — she’s frequently moving him from one branch to another.

Add a red table runner in the dining room and a red bow to the front door, and that’s it! 

I think this must be the year of the garland. Did you see all of the pretty photos at Nesting Place? So festive.

A few weeks ago I set out to reform my towering pile of papers.  It was an overwhelming catastrophe.

When I gathered all of the papers together, they buried my dining table. The problems were clear:  I saved too many cards and letters, and I had not dealt with incoming papers that should have been tossed sooner.

The grand theme for this makeover was:

Why do I still have this?

When I was younger and single I could save everything, because it wasn’t too much really. I thought it was nice to keep records just in case, and I took pride in how organized it all was.

Gradually as life became busier, I didn’t have time to maintain them all, and eventually I gave up. I didn’t want to look through them, because there were just too many, and it was overwhelming.

It was time to toss them, in a drastic way.  I decided to pretend I was moving overseas and could only take a few things with me. That was the motivation I needed.

A Sample:

Kept: A letter from my great-grandma telling me how different Germany is now that they have airplanes and ice.
Tossed: A stack of graduation and wedding cards.

Kept:  Pages from my 10th grade journal documenting the first entertaining/tragic months of high school.
Tossed:  Certificates rating me “Excellent +” for my high school activities, including a special one that certified I was “worthy of joining the Learning & Liberty Wall of Fame.” Awesome.

Kept:  A card from my granny with two dimes taped to the inside.
Tossed:   An information manual (literally, a book) with instructions to operate my couch. In French and Spanish.

I tossed over 40 pounds of papers, and I don’t think I can fully express what a relief it is to be free of it. The amount had been a burden, and I am so glad it is gone.  

Now all of the papers fit in a few boxes, a couple of folders, and one file box.  An improvement, yes?

Making Over Your Paper Pile:

• Paper Pile Makeover (Before) — plus readers’ best tips
• A Solution for Lost Papers and Late Bills
• What Papers Can You Get Rid Of?
• Holding on to Sentimental Things
• Going Paperless
• What Motivates Us: Inspiration to Declutter
• How to Keep and Store Children’s Art

photo by Laure Wayaffe

I know it’s hard to see from my pile of papers, but I really do think going paperless is brilliant.

In fact, I’ve switched over to paperless in many ways, which is why the pile was only half the size of what it could have been.

Technology has reduced a remarkable amount of paper clutter in my home. 

On my computer I keep:

• my calendar  – I love being able to schedule birthdays and anniversaries to repeat every year.
• my address book  – It was once a spreadsheet, but now it’s the Address Book program on the MacBook.
• Photos — I rarely print them, ever.
• Lists — I save the ones I’ll use again such as long term plans or trip packing lists.
• Documents – I signed up to receive statements and bills online, and I scanned the papers I wanted to keep long-term.
• Recipes — I have my personal recipes saved as text files, and then I use resources like AllRecipes.com.
• Financial records — What did people use before Quicken or Microsoft Money?

And thanks to the internet, I no longer keep:

• the phone book
• maps
• cookbooks
• newspapers and magazines
• nonfiction books with how-to information
• reference books like dictionaries and encyclopedias

(Right now you might be wondering if all of these are digital, then what was in the big pile?  I’m still not completely sure, but it’s definitely getting smaller.)

I still keep cards and notes, drawings, and important documents in their original paper form.  I wouldn’t want to let go of some of my letters from family members.  Actually, this is giving me the idea to go ahead and photograph some of them just in case I were to lose them.

Seven strategies for going paperless:

1. Start with the current incoming papers.  You don’t have to do it all at once.  It takes an investment of time to scan old papers.  You can simply wait and then gradually discard the old paper files when you don’t need them anymore.
2. Don’t use your printer.  Instead of using up ink and paper, choose the “print to pdf” feature if you need to save something you found on a web page.  CutePDF is a free downloadable program to do this.
3. Decide what you will use for scanning.  It really depends on your personal needs.  If you have a lot of papers, it may be worth investing in a scanner with speed.  Perhaps your employer will let you use the office scanner for your personal documents.  You could even use a digital camera.
4. Give your documents descriptive names, and try to be consistent.  I try to include a date in the label, and I do it in this style:  ”Bank statement 09/01/2008″ becomes “20080901-Bank statement”.  Any list of documents will always stay in chronological order.
5. Plan how will you find them later.  Some people prefer to sort documents into a structured folder system.  Another option is to put them in one folder (or maybe put all from the current year together) and then search.
6. Backing up your computer becomes even more important.  Have two versions of backups, such as a CD of important documents in addition to an external hard drive.
7. Don’t worry about scanning temporary files.  Focus on the documents you want to keep long-term, and just toss the papers that are temporary.

You know what’s funny?  I wrote the draft for this post on the back of a piece of scratch paper.  Paper will never be replaced completely — and there’s something nice about that.

What about you?  How have you gone paperless?

photo by The Container Store

As we tackle our paper pile, the motto for the day is:

Do not organize what you can toss!

Are you overcome by papers but don’t know how long to keep them or if it’s safe to throw them away?

Set aside 45 minutes and turn on good music. Get a bag or a recycle bin ready, and borrow a shredder if you don’t have one.  It’s time to make some big progress.

Start with the obvious.

Go quickly through your house and throw away all the junk mail, expired coupons, catalogs, and old grocery lists that you see.  Any little scribbled notes that you no longer need should be tossed.

Take it one step further and prevent useless paper from entering your house in the first place.  Open your mail over the recycle bin.  Opt out of credit offers, and remove your name from catalog mailing lists.  

Magazines and newspapers

Save individual pages from magazines instead of the entire issue. Give magazines away to a friend or donate them to the local library.  Put yesterday’s newspaper in the recycle bin.  Cancel subscriptions for newspapers or magazines that you never get around to reading.

Paid bills

You really don’t need more than three months of past bills that have been paid.  If the company has a reputation for frequent billing errors then it might be worth keeping more, but otherwise it’s safe to toss them.

Receipts

When the transaction has been entered in your checkbook and has cleared your account, you probably don’t need those little slips of paper any more.  The only reasons to keep them would be:

• the possibility of returning an item
• insurance valuation for expensive items
• for taxes, such as sales tax credit or home upgrades

Almost all other receipts can be tossed after you’ve checked your bank or credit card statement.

Pay stubs

Only keep the most recent few until you get the last one for the year.  Then compare it to your W-2 before you toss it.

Bank or Credit Card statements

I’d say this one is a personal judgement call.  Most statements probably do not have long-term significance, but keeping them helps me to toss other paperwork.  I can easily throw away paid bills and receipts because I know there is a record of them on the bank statement.

Retirement Account statements

You don’t need the monthly statements if you’ve received a quarterly or annual statement.  It’s also fine to toss the Annual Report and Prospectus for an investment. Never toss a letter or document that confirms your right to a future retirement benefit.

Taxes

In most cases, you should keep tax returns for at least 3 years, since that’s the time limit to amend a return or for the IRS to audit good-faith returns.  (There’s no time limit for the IRS to audit fraudulent returns.)

Auto Records

Keep maintenance records until you sell the car.

Auto and Property Insurance papers

When you get the new insurance card in the mail, throw away the expired cards.  You don’t need to keep insurance paperwork that expired or that covered property you no longer own.

Health Insurance Papers

Instead of storing a bulky directory of physicians, see if your insurance company lets you search online for network doctors.  You can likely find the list of preferred prescriptions online as well.  Keep medical bills for the current year, and then toss them if you don’t need them for tax deductions.

School papers

Are you keeping old school notes or research papers just because you worked hard on them?  (You’re not keeping them to show how smart you are, right?)  Unless you actually use them in your current career, you don’t need them anymore.  They have already served their purpose.  Keep a small sample if you must, and then let go of the rest.

Warranties and Manuals

If you have any warranty paperwork that is expired or manuals for appliances that you no longer own, give them a toss.

What about cards, letters, and keepsakes?

Papers with sentimental value are challenging just by themselves.  We’ll get to that next week. I also want to share more ideas for going digital with paper storage.

If you still have a lot more to clean out, that’s ok! Just take a look at how many papers you’ve already managed to toss. Later you can pick up right where you left off.

Did I leave something off the list? I know it’s a long one.  Do you have any questions or more ideas?