Blog‎ > ‎

Imperfect Perfectionist - Organizing Paperwork

posted Mar 7, 2011, 9:36 AM by Kristin Mastromarino Vander Wiede

March 7th, 2011 | Author: Wendy

One of my organization challenges is where to put all the little things, like the papers that accumulate- from  mail, to school, to telephone notes. Originally I set up a filing system with files that said:

  • To Pay
  • To Call
  • To Read
  • To File

When I got the mail I would get out of my car go straight past two paper bags in the garage placed strategically next to the door; one labeledmagazines/catalogues and the other labeled newspapers. I would stop and deposit the catalogues, papers that I’m not reading, and junk mail. From there I would go right into the office and open the mail and file the remainder of paper appropriately.

That worked well until I realized that I now had a second of source of paper to file, my emails. I’m never sure what to save and what to toss.
I also want to know how I can set up a system that doesn’t take long and is routine. Most importantly, I want to find it when I am looking for it. So often I file and comment to myself about my brilliant job I did, until my husband asks me to produce a document. At that point I look at him like a deer in headlights.

“Don’t worry honey I put it someplace very safe.”

As part of my series “The Perfect Imperfectionist” where imperfect is my new definition of perfection,  I am reaching out to professional organizer Kristin Mastromarino to help me put things in order. If there is anyone else out there that has a great system in place, I would love to hear from you.

Share
Comments