I need some serious organizational help

[Davidius]

My office is a mess! There are books, magazines, folders, and papers strewn everywhere, but I have no idea where to begin in getting everything organized. I got rid of one of my bookshelves and have been trying to sell my extra books to make room; my filing "box" (a small black thing with space for about 10 folders) is full; I have no idea what to do with magazines.

Can anyone make any recommendations? Now that I'm married, there is a lot of "official paper" to keep track of. I thought I might start by getting a new, full-size filing cabinet, but they are a lot more expensive than I thought.

 

[TimV]

Drive around any town on a Saturday and you'll fine all the filing cabinets you need cheap at garage sales. Does your wife have a knack for organising?

 

[Dearly Bought]

My office is a mess! There are books, magazines, folders, and papers strewn everywhere, but I have no idea where to begin in getting everything organized. I got rid of one of my bookshelves and have been trying to sell my extra books to make room; my filing "box" (a small black thing with space for about 10 folders) is full; I have no idea what to do with magazines.

Can anyone make any recommendations? Now that I'm married, there is a lot of "official paper" to keep track of. I thought I might start by getting a new, full-size filing cabinet, but they are a lot more expensive than I thought.

If you're just newly married and need a full-size filing cabinet to keep track of all the "official paper," you may be holding on to way more stuff than you need to.

 

[Davidius]

My office is a mess! There are books, magazines, folders, and papers strewn everywhere, but I have no idea where to begin in getting everything organized. I got rid of one of my bookshelves and have been trying to sell my extra books to make room; my filing "box" (a small black thing with space for about 10 folders) is full; I have no idea what to do with magazines.

Can anyone make any recommendations? Now that I'm married, there is a lot of "official paper" to keep track of. I thought I might start by getting a new, full-size filing cabinet, but they are a lot more expensive than I thought.

If you're just newly married and need a full-size filing cabinet to keep track of all the "official paper," you may be holding on to way more stuff than you need to.

Maybe, that's something else I need to figure out, i.e. what exactly needs to be kept. But the thing that we have is still tiny.

 

[creformed01]

Buy me airfare and a meal and i will reorganize all of that for ya.

 

[Davidius]

Does your wife have a knack for organising?

I don't know. She hasn't done anything thus far, but I haven't asked her, either.

 

[jwithnell]

Here's the rubric I follow:
1. Throw away what can be thrown away (or sold, given, etc. Do you really use those old magazines?)
2. Put away what can be put away (it sounds like you need to find the places to put things. A small (two drawer file cabinet can be helpful. You likely can find articles on the web that tell you what you really need to keep and for how long. A trick I've picked up: never stack anything -- when you need something further down the stack, you'll end up with a mess.)
3. Clean the rest, i.e., dust, vacuum, etc.

You can use odd bits of time to accomplish some of this. I find the 3 minutes I'm waiting for something in the microwave can be used to get a lot done. In an office, that might be while you're on hold, waiting for something to finish printing, etc.

 

[Davidius]

Here's the rubric I follow:
1. Throw away what can be thrown away (or sold, given, etc. Do you really use those old magazines?)
2. Put away what can be put away (it sounds like you need to find the places to put things. A small (two drawer file cabinet can be helpful. You likely can find articles on the web that tell you what you really need to keep and for how long. A trick I've picked up: never stack anything -- when you need something further down the stack, you'll end up with a mess.)
3. Clean the rest, i.e., dust, vacuum, etc.

You can use odd bits of time to accomplish some of this. I find the 3 minutes I'm waiting for something in the microwave can be used to get a lot done. In an office, that might be while you're on hold, waiting for something to finish printing, etc.

Oh it's just my "home office" (converted smaller bedroom in a 2 bedroom apt) where I use the computer, do homework, and read. But that is all very helpful information. I will look for some two drawer file cabinets at the thrift store or yard sales.

 

[fredtgreco]

David,

Instead of spending a couple of hundred on a filing cabinet (that you will have to move soon) buy a good top feeder scanner. Scan much of the paper, and then shred it. You may even be able to take it to a place a school where there is a high speed scanner. For example, I brought much of our files to the office, where I made PDFs of them with our scanner (it does 70 ages per minute) and now it is more secure than before (copy on my PC, copy on my wife's and backed up) and does not take any space. If I need a particular page, I just print it.

 

[Scottish Lass]

Goodwill often has filing cabinets as well. Many cities have surplus/used office supply stores, too. I keep all our household paperwork in one 2-drawer cabinet--everything from taxes to banking to credit to medical records.

Secular magazines can often be donated to hospitals (which rarely have them in the general waiting rooms anymore) or can be recycled. If you're not reading them, or they can be read online, change that. Can missionaries use any religious printed material you have? We've been able to do that a couple of times with old devotionals, Sunday School material, etc.

Binders can be helpful for old coursework, sermon texts, etc. Tim labels his by course and stacks them on top of the bookshelves (of which we have nearly a dozen).

 

[Scott1]

For each item, ask yourself:

1) Do I need this?
2) Do I want or have emotional attachment to this?

For "yes" items, then classify according to:

1) Am I more likely than not to use this in the next 12 months?

If yes, organize it for ready access
If no, store it away

For "no" items,


Have a box for:

1) "Give away"
2) "Throw away"
3) "Sell"

Keep these last three boxes around all times, even after you have "cleaned up."

 

[Zenas]

Have a paper airplane making/throwing contest.

 

[Davidius]

David,

Instead of spending a couple of hundred on a filing cabinet (that you will have to move soon) buy a good top feeder scanner. Scan much of the paper, and then shred it. You may even be able to take it to a place a school where there is a high speed scanner. For example, I brought much of our files to the office, where I made PDFs of them with our scanner (it does 70 ages per minute) and now it is more secure than before (copy on my PC, copy on my wife's and backed up) and does not take any space. If I need a particular page, I just print it.

Do you use that method for things like insurance, banking, credit, and job related stuff? How much does a scanner like that cost?

 

[fredtgreco]

David,

Instead of spending a couple of hundred on a filing cabinet (that you will have to move soon) buy a good top feeder scanner. Scan much of the paper, and then shred it. You may even be able to take it to a place a school where there is a high speed scanner. For example, I brought much of our files to the office, where I made PDFs of them with our scanner (it does 70 ages per minute) and now it is more secure than before (copy on my PC, copy on my wife's and backed up) and does not take any space. If I need a particular page, I just print it.

Do you use that method for things like insurance, banking, credit, and job related stuff? How much does a scanner like that cost?

You can buy a Laser all in one for about $400, or an inkjet all in one for $100. Those are slower, but do the job. The copier I have at work is a commercial product (like you see at a school library). I keep all my financial records on PDF. You can download cell phone bills, credit card statements, etc. from the website of your account. Unless it is an original with an original signature, a printed PDF is the same as a copy. You can even password protect PDFs for more security. There are several cheap PDF creators that you can use.

 

[Davidius]

David,

Instead of spending a couple of hundred on a filing cabinet (that you will have to move soon) buy a good top feeder scanner. Scan much of the paper, and then shred it. You may even be able to take it to a place a school where there is a high speed scanner. For example, I brought much of our files to the office, where I made PDFs of them with our scanner (it does 70 ages per minute) and now it is more secure than before (copy on my PC, copy on my wife's and backed up) and does not take any space. If I need a particular page, I just print it.

Do you use that method for things like insurance, banking, credit, and job related stuff? How much does a scanner like that cost?

You can buy a Laser all in one for about $400, or an inkjet all in one for $100. Those are slower, but do the job. The copier I have at work is a commercial product (like you see at a school library). I keep all my financial records on PDF. You can download cell phone bills, credit card statements, etc. from the website of your account. Unless it is an original with an original signature, a printed PDF is the same as a copy. You can even password protect PDFs for more security. There are several cheap PDF creators that you can use.

I have an HP Photosmart 3140 All-in-One with a scanner on the top. It sounds like that would be slower but still do the job. How do you make sure that you don't lose all the data? Multiple backups?

 

[Rich Koster]

Stackable Rubbermaid containers or the like work well. You can label the outsides and stack other stuff on them if you use the bottom of closets to store them. If you don't want to spend the $5 a piece for them, old wine/liquor boxes work but not for heavy stacking. They are usually fairly sturdy to protect the original product.

 

[BJClark]

For older magazines, like others mentioned, I'd suggest taking them and donating them to a hospital or doctors office, just make sure if they have your name and address to removed those first.

receipts for medical or tax purposes and such that you want to keep, get a manila envelope and put them in their for tax purposes, that way they are all in the same place.

Some of the files you could scan to a cd or USB drive--just mark them saying which files are in which cd/usb.

 

[jwithnell]

Scanning some things might be a good idea, but won't work for everything. Here's a link to one brochure on the topic ...

Keeping Family/Household Records

 

[fredtgreco]

Do you use that method for things like insurance, banking, credit, and job related stuff? How much does a scanner like that cost?

You can buy a Laser all in one for about $400, or an inkjet all in one for $100. Those are slower, but do the job. The copier I have at work is a commercial product (like you see at a school library). I keep all my financial records on PDF. You can download cell phone bills, credit card statements, etc. from the website of your account. Unless it is an original with an original signature, a printed PDF is the same as a copy. You can even password protect PDFs for more security. There are several cheap PDF creators that you can use.

I have an HP Photosmart 3140 All-in-One with a scanner on the top. It sounds like that would be slower but still do the job. How do you make sure that you don't lose all the data? Multiple backups?

Yes, it will be slower, since it does not appear to have a document feeder. It is much faster to scan a stack of 20 pages if you can simply load them into the feeder and walk away.

As for making sure I don't lose the data, multiple backups are easily accomplished. Which you can do is scan the documents you need, keep a copy on at least one computer, and if possible on every computer in the house (most households have at least two PCs), and then back that data up. A very low-tech way to do this is to buy a CD-RW disc and simply burn the PDFs onto it. Because it is re-writable you can modify and add more documents. You could also use an online backup storage solution like Mozy or iDrive, or Carbonite. Many of these "pay" solutions have free accounts for lesser storage (like 5GB or less) that work perfectly fine for storing the type of documents we're talking about.

Another really nice solution is Dropbox which allows you to store and sync between computers up to 2 GB of data. Still another option is drop.io. The point that I am trying to make is that electronic storage is easier, cheaper, and actually more secure than paper storage. That's why libraries, corporations, law firms, and accountants use electronic storage.

 

[Scottish Lass]

If you use Hotmail, they give 25G of free online storage; it's called SkyDrive.

 

[glorifyinggodinwv]

The point that I am trying to make is that electronic storage is easier, cheaper, and actually more secure than paper storage. That's why libraries, corporations, law firms, and accountants use electronic storage.

Pastor Greco makes an excellent point here. We got a desktop scanner at church that does about 30 pages a minute, and the amount of paper to deal with has drastically been reduced. I plan on doing this with 90 percent of the boxes of papers and such we have at home. Just make sure you have multiple back-ups as Pastor Greco recommended. As been pointed out, having at least three usually makes for a secure system: on the computer, external drive or such, and one offsite (internet backup like dropbox).

(Electronic storage has been a great thing for paper packrats like myself)

Blessings,

 

[PresbyDane]

Drive around any town on a Saturday and you'll fine all the filing cabinets you need cheap at garage sales. Does your wife have a knack for organising?

Whatever you do, DO NOT let your wife organize your stuff, I colud not find my stuff for weeks

 

[Berean]

One more point: after converting all your documents, make sure you have a shredder that you can use on anything with your personal information on it.

 

[Scottish Lass]

Drive around any town on a Saturday and you'll fine all the filing cabinets you need cheap at garage sales. Does your wife have a knack for organising?

Whatever you do, DO NOT let your wife organize your stuff, I colud not find my stuff for weeks

Hey!!! I resemble that remark!. Actually, I label and alphabetize everything I file, so he's generally better off when I'm done.

I think.