Our Home - Study Progress (Part 2)

In the last post I showed the progress made in the study organising the bookcase/display cabinet. I also managed to sort out all the mess on the desk and reorganise the desk drawers.

The desk had become a dumping ground for all sorts of rubbish and I was struggling for space to work:

 

I've put all the magazines in the kitchen - I know if they are in there I will definitely sort them out because I HATE having any clutter in the kitchen. So hopefully they will all be sorted through, clippings filed and magazines recycled in the next couple of days.

I also put the filing back into our old decrepit filing cabinet, just to get it off the desk. I've seen a couple of cabinets from Staples that I want to get to replace the old one which is a double width cabinet and not very practical:

A single width 2 drawer cabinet (Pierre Henry Silver) which should hold all our household papers and:

A single width cabinet with 2 drawers (Pierre Henry Silver) which will be handy for stationery/paper items and the lower filing drawer for Hubs work-related files (expenses, taxes etc).

Once I get the cabinets the plan is to sort through all the paperwork and get rid of as much paper clutter as possible. I've already changed most utilities so that my bills are electronic, but we do still have old paper copies of these and old bank statements that we don't need to keep which can be thrown out. I'll also convert any other utilities to electronic billing that have been missed.

I also plan to scan a copy of important documents such as insurances etc so that I can file these with my Mission Control Finances info, so that we have a more readily accessible copy of the documents (as well as a back-up copy should anything happen to the paper copies).

I have already done a major paperwork purge, but that was a while ago and like everything else that doesn't have a system in place, things have lapsed from perfect organisation and needs a mini revamp.

A lot of the stuff lying on the desk was things I'd bought/found around the house for my Seasonal Glass Vases ideas, so I've boxed all of that up and its in the Den, another project on hold for now as there is just too much else to be sorted out.

So finally a lovely clear desktop:

and OK a lot of the stuff has just been moved, but there are now definite plans in place to sort out each of the clutter hotspots that had gathered on the desk. To sum up:

• Filing - to be purged, reviewed, converted to electronic billing and documents scanned for backup and to be filed into new filing cabinets;
• Magazines - to be reviewed, clipped and recycled plus magazine clippings to be scanned for electronic storage;
• Glass Vases - still collecting ideas, but project on hold till other priority house projects have been completed. Items for the project collected in a box in the den.

Once the desk was cleared, I was on an organisational roll, so decided to tackle the desk drawers too (again sorry for the lack of before pics). The desk has 4 drawers, which I use as follows:

• Top Drawer - stationery
• 2nd Drawer - aromatherapy and inspiration books;
• 3rd Drawer - extras of stationery (notebooks, pens, highlighters) plus IT related reference info, cordless keyboards, mice and laptop power adaptors;
• 4th Drawer - full of rubbish, but its too low for me to reach, so I can't sort it out. Have to get Hubs when he's in a good mood to help me.

I will do separate posts on each of the drawers, otherwise this could end up War & Peace!