Paper Pile Giveaway
Congrats to the winner of Lysa TerKeurst’s book Made to Crave. She is: Kristina; timestamp 11:51 pm on January 5th. Send your home address to me at [email protected] right away!
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Paper.
It piles.
It perturbs.
It is a problem!
Is there any aspect of trying to maintain a clean home that is more unnerving??
Sure the kitchen may get messy.
So what!!
We can always clean it up again, wiping and scrubbing until the counter is clean, the dishes are done and the pots and pans back in their rightful place.
If we want to keep it that way for a while, we need only to eat a meal or two out of have paper actually be our friend (in the form of plates on which to dine!!)
But with paper it is a whole different ballgame.
While we may be able to spend an afternoon sorting, purging and pitching our piles of paper leaving only the needed ones in our abode, it is only a temporary fix. No sooner have we tossed our piles into the trash (or recycle bin) than a whole new batch enters our home.
They come at us from all directions.
The newspaper arrives.
The mail gets delivered.
The kids return home from school or an extra-curricular activity.
Because we aren’t always sure what to do with this stuff, we end up placing it neatly in a pile.
Oh, come on! Do neat piles actually exist? I’m not sure I ever seen one.
Okay, maybe I’ve seen a few, but they didn’t stay neat for long. As soon as someone was in need of a paper they thought might be hiding in said pile, they rifled through it and left it a complete mess.
And what do the neat piles do to us women?
They shout, “Failure, failure, failure!! Why look at you mom! You can’t even make a decision. You don’t know where to put us so you just choose any horizontal surface within a three foot radius and plop us down. Incompetent woman! Can’t you even take care of the paper in your home, for crying out loud!!”
Okay, so maybe I’ve never actually had a pile talk to me like an apple tree on the way to Oz, but I have had that exact line of thought run through my brain.
Piles make me feel defeated. They remind me that I was not on top of the ballgame.
I didn’t have a plan for those papers, so there they sit, a stack of unmade decisions I put off until another time.
They are the culmination of the “for now”s in my life.
You know, “I’ll set this mail here, for now. I’ll put these papers on the counter for now. I really don’t have time to think about what to do with these clothes, shoes, toys, store items. Etc… I’ll just lay them here for now.
Gals, the phrase for now is derailing our organizational train!
Well, since January is a time for all things resolution-y, I’m sure many of you have made a goal that has to do with getting more organized around your place.
Maybe with your time.
Or with your cleaning & clutter.
Or your grocery shopping & meal planning.
Perhaps even with your paper piles!
Here’s a little giveaway to help boost your moral. It includes:
~A periwinkle (one of my favorite colors!) three-ring binder.
~A set of whimsical tab dividers for the binder.
~A sturdy vinyl folder with many inside pockets for organizing fliers & such.
~ A set of colorful push pins.
~A set of matching jumbo paper clips.
~A set of push clips for a bulletin board that hold coupons & such right where you can see them.
~A pocket 2011 calendar and matching notepad.
~Some totally fun, swirly-patterned, comfy-grip mechanical pencils. ( I always do my calendar in pencil since things may change & a I HATE a messy looking calendar!)
~An undated desk-size, week-at-a-glance planner pad to map out your days.
~Finally, a personalized copy of my book The Complete Guide to Getting & Staying Organized.
To enter the giveaway you must leave a comment on this post sometime between now & Monday morning at 7:00 am when the winner will be chosen and announced.
Either…..
Tell us what aspect of paper causes you the most trouble….
or
Give us a solution for any aspect of paper problems.
Now, if time is tight or you are simply drowning in paper at the moment and as a result your brain won’t work, simply say, “I’m in!” Drawing is random. :-)
I’ll try to hop on over the weekend and share a few of my paper tips with you too. (NOTE: I have done this in the fourth page of the comments giving directions for how to assemble a Brain in a Binder that will house your papers. Click on the comments & then scroll down to see :-))
Now…get tackling those piles girlfriends!!!!
Pile-busting Blessings,
I clip to many articles, recipes, lists, and also newsletters from Christians organization I like to support to read later and it piles up faster than I have time to read it–but for some reason I think it is that important to save?? I’m trying to KISS and live more in the moment and realize I don’t need to know everything….only what God leads me to. I don’t want to be a news-info junkie.
I LOVE organization! I know, I’m a bit weird, but I can get real irritable if my home doesn’t look organized to the naked eye. O.K. — don’t look in my closets, but I like what I can see to be neat and orderly. My greatest problem with paper is — everybody else!! It seems like if there is an available flat surface or tabletop, my husband thinks it’s important to cover it with mail, tools, food, etc. Usually, I give him a time limit. I say, you have until Saturday to go thru your things — keep what you need and throw away the rest. If — by that time — you have not done so, I will do it. (He knows that I am much more willing to “file” things permanently than he is.) He usually gets right on it!
Receipts and bills that have already been paid are placed in a pile on my desk. Because I’m not forced to look at the pile every day, the pile just keeps growing. I hate to admit that I’m tempted to just throw it all away instead of trying to organize it all because it has been over a year already since I’ve filed anything. Yikes!
I am laughing at this subject. I just spent all morning organizing my office at work! I think it takes the beginning of the year to motivate us and a chronic mess to less us know that we need to do something. I threw away a lot of stuff!!!
How did you know I was just lamenting over my piles!! Bills are my worst! Everything else I can eventually throw away. I’m not a keeper but need a good system for bill sorting, paying, filing, shredding etc.
This post reminds me that someone stole my clipboard for school notes and to do lists… hmmmmmm. Maybe I need to go buy another. =)
I have a “mom-brain” binder on my desk. In it goes all the school info – calendar, directory, etc. Whenever I get a paper telling me something is due or the room needs something, I put it in the binder in reverse order – so that when things come due, I know the week of. I also organize the kids’ papers/artwork in huge three ring binders. I put their artwork in sheet protectors and they get a binder for each year. I have a basket where I let things “marinate” for about a month, then pick out our favorites for the binder. When mail comes, I toss the junk immediately, file the bills, and the rest is only allowed on the counter for a couple of days. I keep magazines in the car for waiting to pick up kids, and newspapers we read and recycle.
I homeschool my 4 children so I have paper piles everywhere. One corner of my house could be deemed a fire hazard. I’m definitely in!
I have to agree with receipts…either they are all stuffed in my purse or laying on the kitchen counter. Then when I need a receipt I can’t find the right one. I really struggle with which receipts to keep and which ones to get rid of.
Receipts are my biggest problem. I try and keep them all together, the only thing is I end up with a stack of them (all unorganized of course). If I would have a file for each type of receipt, maybe when I need to find certain ones it would be easier.
I’m loving all the items in this giveaway!
For kids work, I have found it helpful if I pick out just a few actual pieces to keep and then just take pictures of the rest with my camera. That way I “have” the kids’ work but a 4×6 photo in my photo storage box takes up A LOT less space than the actual art project or schoolwork.
The paper that causes me the most frustration is receipts. They just pile up everywhere and I hate to throw them out for the first year, although it should be 6 months or less.
The piles that occur on the kitchen counter/island…arrgh!!!! And when they get lessened, they build back up again!
I never thought I’d be so happy at the prospect of winning items for organization! :) For me, it is keeping mail sorted that is tough!
I have trouble with the kids’ school papers and catalogs!!! I totally need a better system. Stuff gets hung up on the fridge and I forget about things. Catalogs pile up super fast at our house!!! I would love to win. I think the giveaway would really help me to get more organized….which I need to do even if I don’t win. LOL! Thanks for the chance to win! :)
For me, I have clutter in my genes. I have hoarders on both sides of my family and I swear it is genetic! SO, I have been working hard on purging the last year with much success. BUT now I have piles of papers I know I NEED to keep and I am not sure how to organize them so I can keep up with it all. Kids schoolwork, and forms for my business are the biggest challenge.
Oopsie, I hit send before I submitted my email and website!
I was so excited to set up a pretty white container on my desk. It was going to hold all my papers nice and neat until I could file them. Well…it holds all the papers, but it’s overflowing, not nice and neat, and then the cat walks on the pile and papers fall on the floor, and it’s a huge mess and I start hyperventilating. I need a better system!!
Paper is my worst enemy at home – especially in my kitchen entry area. Piles are everywhere! I am very sentimental about all my kids writings, pictures, drawings, art projects, etc. I have trouble throwing them away. I also love to print out recipes, exercise tips, healthy eating articles and devotions from the internet. Again – more piles! I start to get organized and then just get overwhelmed and never finish. I love the idea someone gave about having the kids help sort through their papers and deciding what to save – only what will fit in a specific container, file or box. My Mom was a saver too so I never learned this skill. Really want to teach my kids differently.
I am a homeschool mom. All the papers that go along with being a homeschool family just keep piling up. I have a ruthless throw away policy, but I still get busy and end up with stacks of stuff where they needn’t be.
I never seem to make a dent in the piles.
I have to agree w/a prior post regarding school work…that’s my biggest problem – there’s so much of it to go thru, it typically piles up for a couple weeks, then I widdle away at it, only for it to creep right back up on me :( Would love ideas of getting better organized!! thanks :)
For my grocery shopping list, I have a pad
Paper… Wow that is a big problem. We had newspapers everyday, mail, I am a homeschooling mother so print outs and work pages. I had to get help it was attacking at all sides. So here is what I started to do. I cancelled the newspaper and signed up for online reading, also for consumer report magazine too, (we always saved that one) Two down. On the mail. I get it, walk in the door go straight to the counter by the trash. I recycle or toss the unnecessary items. Bills or need to keeps are delt with immediately. No waiting to sneak up on me. With the kids papers everyone has a cubby. So my counter are now free of the clutter. Recipes are saved to neat program I checked out from the local library. So now that is also handled, plus now super easy to find and plan out meals. I’m happy and so is my house. I hope this helps others.
I like to think I’m organized with all the paper that enters our home, and I even have file folders to sort them into, but the file folders are in a pile! The worst one for me is schoolwork. I feel bad for throwing any of that stuff out so it goes into a drawer and at the end of the schoolyear, I go through it and decide what is actually worth keeping. But, I could definitely use some help.
Receipts and the “Keep this portion for your records” part of the bill are my clutter biggies! Just took a break from organizing my scrapbook papers since my mom gave me some organizing bins for my birthday yesteray!!! Love the goodies in the giveaway!