If you think this is bad, you should’ve seen me a few years ago. Back before we had Annalyn – and needed a room for her – our “guest room” was almost always a 12×12 junk pile, cleaned off only when I expected company. (Usually just hours before I expected company.)
Even after a lot of decluttering and organizing (thank you, second trimester), I still tended to pile up papers and general STUFF that didn’t have a home. Without a guest room to dump it into, I began the nasty habit of sweeping everything off my kitchen table into a large box and then sticking it in the garage when faced with the prospect of guests.
I know. You’re bowled over by my awesomeness. But what I’m saying is this desk disaster isn’t as bad as it looks. It could be worse!
But it’s still bad. And it still clutters up my dining room (and my mind) and keeps me from accomplishing the things I need to do. These days, I’m trying to keep it more organized, which so far has only meant that I dig out the surface of my desk and file paycheck stubs and various other papers more often. But I think I need a better system.
I cleaned off my desk (once again) as part of Simple Mom’s Project: Simplify. (This week’s challenge was paperwork, which was a large part of that mess up above!) But I’m asking for your help. How can I better contain and – even better – organize the mess of my desk? Do you have a good system? Are you a shelf person, a hook person or do you prefer a bulletin board or boxes? How do you organize your to-do pile?
I am reading Organized Simplicity, and I’m sure Tsh will have lots of tips for a realistic solution for this “hot spot” of my house and, really, my life. But if you have suggestions, please, share them in the comments! (And don’t forget to enter my giveaway for Organized Simplicity. It closes at midnight tonight!)
This post will also be linked up with the Spring Spruce Up. Check it out for more spring cleaning inspiration!
Impressive!
Wow, that desk looks great! Is that in a public part of your house or tucked away out of site? The first photo looks like my kitchen table most of the time. I have no system. The best I can do is keep one cubby in my roll-top desk for just for bills and checkbook and important papers. The rest of the cubbies are crammed willy-nilly with stuff!
Don’t keep a to-do pile – it’s really tempting to think that if you leave it out, you’ll get to it faster, but the opposite happens. You actually get overwhelmed looking at that pile of stuff – where to start??
Instead, put everything away and keep a to-do list with due dates. If you get disciplined about putting things in their place, you’ll be able to find what you need when it’s time to actually get something done. If you have an iPad or an iPhone, I highly recommend Appigo’s To Do app – $20 a year, and totally worth it, since you can access your list from any web browser in addition to having it on your phone. There’s lots of other apps out there too, and a good old spreadsheet, sorted by due date, will get you started.
Hope this helps!!
Blessings –
Francesca
Mary,
WHOA on your before/after pictures; I SO can relate to both ;).
I’m reading Tsh’s book, too, and it’s inspiring and challenging and has me thinking how I can make her suggestions work within the framework of “who” we are. The book is 100% my husband; and it’s 100% ASPIRATION for me, the messy of all messies :/.
Anyways, years ago I wrote my premier organizing post, two practical tips that I continue to use today; maybe the first one will help specifically with your question here :) ~
http://www.pensieve.me/2008/03/organization-10.html
(Hope you don’t mind me linking an old post…it’s easier than re-writing and it has pretty piccha!) :)
Read the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. It is life-changing! I haven’t totally implemented everything in it yet, but it caused me to rethink my whole method of organizing into something much more manageable.
Oh, I so need to do this! Seems like I turn around and new pile of paperwork as reproduced and moved! This is a goal of mine for this summer – some deep trashing of paperwork and shredding. I’ll have to check out the book you referred to.
Good job! I cleaned off our desk this week too because of Simple Mom’s challenge. :-) Every time I take the time to clear the paper piles off our desk I’m amazed at how much better it looks and makes our whole living room look. It’s so much better!! :-)
Thank you for sharing your pictures :0) I love that I’m obviously not the only one that has a desk like that. I’ll have to show my husband! Anyway, to answer your question: When I do get time to get organized and clean off my desk, I use an accordian file folder, a scanner, and a fire-safe. Any documents that we need to keep that have our ss numbers go into the fire safe. Manuals for appliances and such go into the accordian file, as do the gift cards, gift certificates, and not so important to-do paperwork (survey, bills for next month). Most of my paper clutter is coupons and sales papers. I now have a lard 3-ring binder that zips up. it also has 5 accordian type files inside. I put my salespapers in the files provided and my coupons into the attached zippered pouch. And for the papers I’m not quite sure of, I scan them into my computer to save, and shred the hard-copies. Which reminds me, I have a desk to clean :0)
I do a couple of things. I have a bulletin board, which is mostly reserved for inspiration. Only in dire need, does anything from the To Do pile get tacked up there. My best find was a wall mounted 3 tiered letter/bill sorter. The bottom slot is for bills to be paid, the middle is for concert tickets, coupons, things of note, and the top is for paid bills, etc. that need to go in my filing cabinet. I try to only have one pile on the desk and that is just for papers that need to be sorted into my various journals and notebooks. It seems to work but also is a work in progress.
Don’t you just breathe a huge sigh of relief when you see your desk in “after” mode? Great job!
Lovely!
Soooo understand the “put it in a box to go to the garage” thing. Unfortunately, I’m currently (except for these few moments reading your blog) working in the garage and finding many such boxes.
“I began the nasty habit of sweeping everything off my kitchen table into a large box and then sticking it in the garage when faced with the prospect of guests.” I about choked on my popcorn… I DO THAT!!!!!!! But my box goes in my… bedroom. {hanging head in shame}
Flylady.net. Fantastic site
Oh nuts, I missed the contest deadline! Off to the library, I guess :) MY trick for dealing with paper is to not let it build up. If it does, I start to feel all yucky. So I recycle anything that’s not absolutely necessary.
Sorry, no advice from me. The paper piles are my biggest problem area. UGH! Let us know if you find a good system…I need one too.
I was looking through cards from Savvy Blogging last year and saw yours and thought I needed to look you up, then lo and behold, here you are on the Spring Spruce Up! Yay! I have terrible paper problems…mainly b/c I am ALWAYS in the middle of some sort of project that requires PAPER! I used to have a basket of misc paper stuff that I kept on the bar and cleaned out periodically. Just a catch all that looked a little neater. Hmmmm…maybe I should go back to that!
Your desk looks great by the way! :)
Yay!! I’m glad you found me! Paper really is difficult to manage, isn’t it?
I did the “throw everything in a box” thing for a while. Now, I’m at the point where everything fits on the desk, but it’s just cluttered. Now on to the next stage of actually keeping it neat and tidy. Good luck finding something that works!
haha! Thank you – you, too!
Mary – That’s some serious work you’ve done there. My desk is almost always a nightmare, so I can relate! ;)
And the box? I’ve totally done that a million times… So glad I’m not alone!!
Thanks for linking to the Spruce Up!
-Lauren
Nope, you are NOT alone. It seems there are a lot of us who subscribe to the last-minute, shove-it-in-a-box method!
I actually have a large folding table instead of a proper desk right now in my office. And it looks pretty much like your before pic. Except longer… ugh. Very inspired to get cleaning!
I think if my desk space was bigger, it would just be a bigger mess!
My desk looks like that all the time. (Hangs head in shame.) I just worked on it this week, but I am sure that by next week, it will be horrible again. I don’t know what’s up with me and my desk.
Yeah, I don’t even want to tell you how quickly my stack of STUFF grew back. Ugh.
The top part of my desk is cleaned and organized, My work surface, however, is a different story. One I would love to ignore, but it’s on the list in the next week or so. My paperwork system? A scene with Tom Hanks shouting HA-HA-HA! a few times in The Money Pit comes to mind. I have two under the bed storage boxes with paperwork, plus equivalent to one of those in my office. I did buy a paper shredder and empty files last week. I even put a couple of things in one of the folders. Someday soon…seriously…I will get to it. I can’t work efficiently in chaos, so I’ve got to get it done. I’m a firm believer in less is more…and I’m aiming to live with much less stuff…including paperwork.
I can’t work well in chaos either. It overwhelms me and instead of DEALING with it, I end up doing nothing! It’s not a strategy I’d recommend. ;)
I have the same problem. But I’m trying real hard to get it under control.
Me too…again…still…always! :)