Well, I knew it had to come…..real life, that is. Holidays can only last so long, and once real life begins again, the time available to continue conquering our chaos diminishes rapidly. These last few weeks have been saturated with school preparation so progress on our home has slowed to a minuscule crawl. Still, progress IS progress and the point of this blog is to celebrate EVERY step forward, not matter how tiny. In the spirit of continuing momentum I tackled the set of shelves at the end of our library desk…..
I chose this particular project on this particular weekend because I really had very little time or energy to devote to the serenity cause. It seemed like something I could knock over in an hour or so and, for the most part, it was!
In previous years, balancing full-time study, part-time work and four gorgeous and busy children meant that a LOT of things slipped through the cracks. School letters would seemingly stream into the home creating an endless list of must-dos. To be honest, it completely got away on me. I was that parent who was ALWAYS returning notes late (sometimes even after a reminder was sent home), forgetting to pay excursion fees and almost never volunteering for any kind of assistance. So, I decided to initiate an organisational system that could help. As letters, bills etc came into the house, I filed them into a drawer according to the day I needed to action them….
In theory, this was a great idea, and it worked quite well for a good few months. It did fall apart, however, when I came across something that needed to be actioned but didn’t have a set date. In that case I had a sixth pile…..on my desk…..the dreaded “I have no idea what to do with that” pile :/
It might not surprise you to hear that this pile quickly got out of control and the whole system fell to pieces. *sigh* Back to the drawing board….
So, I’ve given it some considerable thought and here’s what I’ve come up with…..
There’s now a drawer JUST for school letters, one for items I need to read, a spot for things that just need to be filed away (I can tackle this drawer every term or so, no problem), a drawer for receipts, and one for items that I need to action at some point. Those items that come into the house regularly now – bills, permission forms, etc. – will be actioned on the spot and then go into their respective drawer. Let’s hope it works! 
So far, so good. But it has only been a couple of weeks. Time will be the true test, but I sure hope I can manage this one!
And the shelves aren’t looking too bad now, either.
Now that this one’s done, I guess I have to tackle the desk. The start of term is a mere day away…..
What are your tips for keeping on top of the paperwork?
