Reorganizing my Office and Files

Well, since I'm not moving my office out of the laundry room, I'm making the most of it and getting more settled in here.
Chanda recommended in comments on my last post that I turn my laundry room into the closet, which was an idea I really liked, but Hubby wasn't to be convinced.  So I'm staying where I am.  Besides, it's not really so bad.  It's warm in winter and cool in summer, has a straight view out the back door window at the back yard (and snow currently), and very bright light.  Besides I get a lot of laundry done haha.

So, it's time to get ORGANIZED!  I've certainly been inspired this week with great posts about redoing files and making things easier to find and sort. The biggest inspiration was this post at House of Hepworths on organizing papers.  And she had been inspired by another post, the original idea of the Mobile Command Center at A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Allison at House of Hepworth made this portable quick filing system:

From House of Hepworth Blog

And this was the original at Bowl Full of Lemons:

From A Bowl Full of Lemons Blog

And now here is my version!

My Mobile Command Center

I don't have a calendar on the front of mine because my calendar is actually on the wall right above it, so I can just see the kind of pretty basket heh. 

 It is very nice to have a specific place for everything now. When a bill comes in, it has a folder.  If I have papers from school to sign and return, they don't get piled on my desk anymore, they have a folder. Each kid has a separate folder, so their awards and notes or whatever can be quickly found and not clutter my desk. There's a misc. "To Be Filed" folder for stuff that doesn't really fit the other things or that I know need to go into the main filing cabinet which is now under my desk.  That folder also has a coupons folder in it.  If I print out or clip a bunch of coupons but don't have my coupon sorter/carrier thingie handy, I can just put them in there and deal with them later. I also keep grocery lists(arranged by store and coupons) in that folder for tweaking as I have time and more weekly circulars are released.  It has really come in handy already. I love it!

 The basket was actually a little wide to hang file folders, so I had the idea of using a wire hanger and snipping off pieces and attaching them to the basket for the folders to hang on.  This was kind of challenging, but I finally got it done and the ends wrapped so they don't get in the way or stick out to hurt anyone if they carry the basket around. Not gorgeous to look at, but it works!

I do still have the smaller basket on my desk which is packed full of bills unfortunately. That's the main reason our Number One Goal this year is to get out of debt. Hopefully I'll get around to blogging about that soon too. According to our budget, we should be totally out of debt other than our house by August of 2011. :)  But that's a whole other post!  Anyway, that little basket for now is still holding the bills and the outgoing letters and envelopes of checks to pay more bills. I can't wait til we get to mark things off the list as PAID OFF and see the stack of bills get smaller and smaller, til there's just a small amount of bills for utilities & other expenses that will fit in the Bills To Pay folder.  And even be able to be paid as soon as they come in the mailbox, or even online!

As I mentioned, I now have the main filing cabinet under my desk.  I used to have a green crate under there that held junk I didn't want on my desk, extra packs of notebook paper, CD holders etc, and the printer sat on it. The filing cabinet was out in the kitchen completely unused except to get placemats on now and then. In fact the folders in the cabinet were full of stuff from 2007.  So I moved the crate out, and the filing cabinet in.  It fit perfectly and I still have plenty of room for my legs under the desk.

 I have all the normal stuff like an Income Tax folder, Insurance (glad to finally have all that stuff in once place), Automobile folder, loans, credit cards, etc. I also redid my family records folder.  Now each family member has a separate folder in it for quick access to birth certificates, shot records, passports or whatever. There's also a folder for Hubby, Corina and I for misc stuff, just like the 3 other kids have in the Mobile Command Basket. So, I finally have a place to put poetry Hubby has written, cards we've received we want to keep, but don't want out in view all the time etc.  There's also a School Stuff folder to move things to from the kids' folders in the basket as they get full.  Like school awards, midterm reports etc.

The crate actually fits perfectly next to the cubby holder behind me. I now have a place to put my purse, magazines, books and the other stuff to keep clutter off my desk.

Oh and here's an overview of the desk now. It's clean!

So, that's what I've been doing lately. I should be posting again soon with pics of the snow. We have about 5 or 6 inches out there and it's still coming down now and then.