Organization 101

[Aleta]

Well, today, I'm going to throw out all of my outdated coupons May 31st. I'm also going to go through the drawer that holds my restaurant and fast food coupons and weed those out as well. I am going to clip all coupons from the Sunday section and at least get them into my coupon box ready to use. I just try to get rid of anything including newspaper sales that are over and done with.

[rob62521]

I got a late start, but I cleaned off my desk, emptied the trash cans, and worked on a pile of papers. What's next?

[Aleta]

Today, I trimmed the coupons that I clipped yesterday and I filed them earlier for this month.

[JanH]

Okay, I went through the coupons and got rid of a ton. How about going through a bookshelf?

[jodi]

Ok, I've been a little absent lately...glad to see that things are still going forth. I just did all my bookshelves before our garage sale last weekend, so I will tackle my car - what a disaster! Seems like I've been living out of it for the past week or so.

[Aleta]

I sort of went through shelves as I got rid of old magazines that I didn't want anymore. I think I'm going to organize the photos on my dining room table that I put there to remind me to do it. I'll also label them. Some are as old as 2 years. I really do have a big project in front of me.

[Aleta]

Thanks to Jodi's idea, I went through photographs that went all the way back to April of 2004. The problem was that as many people were looking at the photos, the photos were never put back into the right envelopes. I was able to get 95% of the dates and events. I keep a calender, mileage diary and that helps.

I think that this a good and useful post and should be here everyday for those who want it.

Tomorrow, I will go through another batch of photos that are even older. I feel like just doing a batch at a time will get it done.

Thanks Jodi for the idea!

[creditcardfree]

When going through photographs...its a good idea to throw away any duplicates, or photos where the picture is blurry, no smile, eyes closed...ect. Its amazing how many people keep these!! If you have 5 pictures of the child opening gifts, pick the best one...throw the rest away...or send them to the person who gave the gift as a postcard and a thank you on the back.

Good job everyone on the organization! I still need to write in my Disney scrapbook...we took the trip in October 2005!! Yikes!

[rob62521]

I went through the photos on my computer, does that count? :-)

[Aleta]

I would think so. Clutter is clutter. I also have had a bad habit of keeping posts in case I need them in the future. I also have to declutter my computer as well.

I'm still going through batches of photos. It started out to be decluttering of a group of photos on my table that has turned into going through older photos in their packages, and dating them and making sure that all of the photos are there. I have never been able to motivate myself to do this until now.

Next, I will put those photos into albums. Wish my luck!

[rob62521]

Hey, good luck with those albums!

I'm bad about keeping photos on my computer, especially since I use them for power points for school.

[Aleta]

Thanks. I'm going to start the next batch in a couple of hours. One just hates to throw or delete items that you may need in the future.

Could you transfer them to an external hard drive or a san disk, so that they don't take up space on your computer. Sometimes, those little disks are almost nothing when you send in rebates.

[Aleta]

I'm now going back many years to photos that have been kept in their original packets but not filed. I have now gone back and attempted to put them in order and I'm matching negatives with photos. This is a big project but an important one to get a handle on. Next, I will put them in photo albums with captions.

This started because I had some more recent about 8 packets of photos that needed to be put in order.

I think that we should try to work on some kind of organization project or even something easy as in cleaning off the computer desk, cleaning out the cupboards, cleaning out refrigerators, getting rid of magazines, etc. There are so many easy things that you could do everyday that would give you a sense of accomplishment.

The FlyLady.net: Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home has an ANTIPROCRASTINATION DAY which is on Wednesday and you couldn't imagine how many items you can knock off that list. I would have a project such as needing to send some information, gifts, or a thank you item. I would get everything together the night before to make sure that I could accomplish it the next day. It works.

[jodi]

I tried Flylady for a little while, but just couldn't keep up. I think I need to do things on my own pace. Unfortunately, I'm not getting on here daily like I used to. Nevertheless...tomorrow I will attempt to catch up all the laundry. Should take 2-3 loads only.

[leggzz66]

I suck at organizing. I dont believe in throwing things away tho, theres many places that would take book and magazines, and im sure that u know someone u can give the dup's too of pix. I mean, with Katrina and all, I think having someone else have a dup, would be good if something like that were to happen to me, that way i wouldnt lose it forever. As for flylady, they email too much, so now i just visit her site, click all the lil clicks, and take notes, and divide and conqour a list. I wish i could find one of aggies lists online. she always make them for the people they clean for. In a good note, i dont have a checkbook to worry about. I finally did get a c.c. though, not by choice, thats how states now pay support. I didnt ask for it, i was just sent it. they said it was to cut paper waste, but guess what, i still get paper in the mail from them too. card reviews, everytime i use the thing, they send me a paper about it. pppffffft.