Project Simplify: Week Two

Paper clutter. UGH!

Bills. UGH!

Receipts. UGH!

Filing. UGH!

I hate paper. Well, let me clarify. I love pretty paper. I hate the paper that piles up and becomes a monster - the stuff that bills and junk mail and magazines and receipts are made of.  This week our Hot Spot was cleaning up and defeating that monster. Thankfully I had started to clean our file cabinet about a month ago, so this helped a good bit.

This is what I had to start with...

This sits on my husband's dresser. It's supposed to be the pretty basket that holds the receipts, checkbook, stamps, and bills waiting to be filed. It's a beast out of control!!!!

Random papers piled on top of the PC that isn't even supposed to be hooked up anymore.

More random papers waiting to be filed.

I do have a filing system in place. File cabinet, file folders, and the files are even in groups - bills in one section, personal info in another, and less pertinent info in the bottom drawer that doesn't lock. Here - proof!

Top drawer

Bottom drawer. I was so proud of this bottom drawer after my last mini-purge. I had thrown out/recycled so much trash last month! Um, I had hardly made a dent!

This time around I ended up with a great bunch of stuff to shred...

And recycle...

Our cat, Emma Grace, kept trying to sleep on this pile. She normally sleeps in the chair and did NOT appreciate sharing it with the trash pile. *sigh* What a tortured life she leads!

I must admit that I was SHOCKED at what I found in my file cabinet! I had no idea that it had been THAT long since I had really, really sorted through ALL of the files! Magazine articles from 1995? Seriously? Insurance enrollment information from 2000? Our son's progress reports from 8th grade? He graduated from HS last year! Oy! I've been slacking! I'm happy to say that it has now been purged. Truly purged! Here are the end results....

The basket on my husband's dresser...

In box to catch random papers (top), and scratch paper on the bottom....

And the file cabinet. It's hard to tell a difference in the top drawer, but there really is one. Those files are a LOT thinner, and there are fewer of them.

I'm particularly proud of this bottom drawer! The entire right side used to be almost entirely user manuals and warranty info, mostly for stuff we don't own anymore. The only appliance books I kept are for the major appliances, my Dyson, and my Keurig. Those files on the right are empty!



At the beginning of the week I even had a grand plan to attack my craft room and go through my scrapbooking/card making piles of paper! I didn't make it quite that far, but I did make it to the 12x12 paper tower in my craft room closet. There is so much paper in this thing that I am sick of! I decided to attack it and thin it out.  The paper tower in the craft room closet before I attacked....

And after....

Kind of hard to tell a difference, huh? Here's the paper I culled....

A friend mentioned that her daughter is interested in scrapbooking, so they get first crack at this stack. Whatever they don't want will go in my yard sale!