A major life change often forces reexamination of even the most tried and true organizing strategies. The irony is that during a major life change we are likely to say to ourselves, “I don’t have time to get organized” or “things are too crazy right now”, even though organization is what you may need the [...]

Today is the day! We’re in the home stretch. We have been going through each piece of paper, tackling those piles and conquering the to dos to get rid of paper clutter. Today though, we conquer the real challenge, keeping our newly organized paper organized. Are you new to our little Organizing Your Paper Party? [...]

We are crazy about paper and creating a place for every piece of paper in our home! Each week we’re following the chapters in the ebook 10 Steps to Organized Paper, by Lisa Woodruff, for our Organizing Your Paper Party! There are only 2 weeks left! Give yourself a little pat on the back for [...]

Last week was our first session on active paper as we follow along in 10 Steps to Organized Paper, our guidebook for this paper series. Some of our biggest headaches come from the constant influx of daily paper. Getting this daily paper organized, can make a huge impact in our daily lives! This is honestly one of my [...]

It’s 6pm and time to clear the table for dinner. You’ve been working on an on-going project, let’s say you’re planning for an upcoming trip. You won’t have time to work on it again this week so you don’t want to file it away and forget about it. So, where does it go? Sound familiar? [...]

If you have spent anytime in the wonderful world of blogs, you are probably familiar with a home management binder. Today, as part of our Organizing Your Paper Party I am sharing some great resources to help you corral those daily household papers in a binder. In fact, I have been so paper party focused I forgot to announce [...]

We’ve been elbows deep in filing with our Organize your Paper Link Party. (If you haven’t linked up,  it is not too late! Link up to last week’s party and see our schedule for the next coming weeks to follow along). I know what some of you might being saying, “I hate filing!” You may [...]

We are crazy about paper around here at Space for Living! We are creating a place for every piece of paper in your home in the current series Organizing Your Paper Party! So far we have covered conquered! Week 1 Taxes Week 2  Important docs Week 3 Medical Paperwork Week 4 Archival- Focusing on Children’s [...]

The school year has started and so has the influx of kid’s schoolwork! Do you already have a growing pile? In this week of our Organizing Your Paper Party series we are organizing keepsakes. While many of the papers heading home with your kiddos can be referenced and then recycled (field trip reminders, lunch schedules, etc), [...]

We are on a mission to conquer all of our household paperwork in 10 weeks! But we are not doing this alone; it’s a party! Follow along with us and link up your own progress as we tackle a different type of paper each week. To help guide us along the way we will be [...]

Ah, important papers. We all have them, birth certificates, social security cards, marriage licenses, insurance documents, the list goes on. And all are documents that are incredibly difficult (or even impossible) to replace. We may not need to access them very often, but when we do, we better be able to find them! Today we are [...]

Today starts week one of our Organizing Paper Party! We are going to make a home for every piece of paper in your life. Each Thursday, we’ll focus on a specific type of paper. You’ll be able to link up your own progress each week. To help guide us along the way we will be following the chapters in the eBook [...]

It is no surprise that paper management is a constant struggle. Between the constant stream of paper coming into our lives and the decisions of what to keep and what to trash, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Just read a few comments from our last giveaway to know you are not alone if you struggle with paper! Here on Space [...]

It’s no secret I love organizing, especially when I can combine beauty and organizing into one project! And that is exactly what I found in this flow chart by Cathy from Just Organize Your Stuff.com. Cathy’s chart combines the best of both worlds, beauty and function, while illustrating the decisions necessary for an efficient paper organizing process. Zoom [...]

Today I am thrilled to be kicking off the first of our guest organizing projects!  Welcome Tiffany from The Nest Effect! I marvel at her ability to blog and teach 2nd grade; a real test of time management skills. Today she is sharing a post from her blog on her system for conquering paper clutter. I love how she starts first with the step [...]

Do you shred every piece of mail with your name and address on it? Are you afraid of people stealing your identity from your junk mail? Does your “to shred” pile quickly build to insurmountable levels? Then I have the perfect answer! Before I share this great new discovery, I have to say that I [...]

Last week I shared a few sites to help you stop unwanted mail at it’s source. Once you have limited the amount of junk mail you get each day, going through your mail can be simple, fast, and even a little fun. I know it might seem like a stretch to call mail sorting fun, [...]

Paper clutter is a major hurdle to cross when getting organized. It could be seen as a necessary evil in some cases, but definitely not in the case of junk mail! Junk mail can quickly clutter up your mailbox, and eventually your home, if not taken care of and recycled immediately. But why not limit the [...]

You may have heard the many praises sung about Pinterest, (the blog world is certainly abuzz).  I particularly love Pinterest for its ability to organize ideas with just the click of a button. It’s also a great way to search for ideas and plan projects. For a long time I have used binders with plastic sleeves to organize [...]

One of the most important organizing systems in my home is a little file folder I keep all of my “action files” in. Incoming paper is sorted right next to this box and paper is immediately filed into its proper home. Since implementing the action file box, there are no more piles of paper on my [...]

Tomorrow is my daughter’s first day of preschool! And you know what that means (besides my tears over how fast she is growing up): a new influx of paper! It sets my organizing heart aflutter to think of all the art projects she’ll bring home. In honor of this occasion, I’m sharing a cork-board I made to [...]

I am thrilled to be guest posting over at Organizing Junkie today.  Laura has an excellent website dedicated to all things organizing! Pop on over to find my solution to all that pesky paper that tends to pile up on flat surfaces. If you missed my first guest post on OrgJunkie.com about keeping it real when [...]

I know I’m not the only one who gets giddy about tackling tough organizing projects! There’s nothing like the thrill of the “after” moment, when you know a space will function a hundred times better than before. I even relish the small but mighty projects I tackle each week in the 10-minute Tuesday challenge. But this [...]

  The great office organization of 2011 (aka my dad’s office, which has been accumulating paper for 25 years) has made slow and steady progress. We started with paperwork and then moved on to establishing organizing systems throughout the office. My dad has systems in place, but they are no longer working. So the key [...]

  I felt overwhelmed with my piles of paper! Now imagine 25 years of paperwork! That much paper sounds overwhelming and perhaps even impossible to sort through; but in our recent organizing project we did it!   A normal day in my dad’s home office might look something like this. We can all have days that [...]

Sometimes, it is the small changes that make all the difference. That is just what happened with Natalie’s recipe binder.  I shared her lovely color coded pages in Monday’s post. After reading the post, she emailed me and said the post had motivated her to “Fix-up” her binder even more! I went through and removed [...]

Like bean bags in a dorm room, the recipe cards of our mothers generation have slowly become a thing of the past. I know there are still some card collectors out there, but there is no denying the internet has changed how we find and organize our recipes. With the vast array of delicious recipes [...]

  My sisters closet/office had become a complete dumping ground for anything and everything “miscellaneous;” if it didn’t have a real home or if she wasn’t sure where it should live, it ended up in the office to be dealt with later. I should start by saying that my sister is very organized. She and [...]

Today’s question is about a rarely seen but often rumored phenomenon… An empty inbox?  Is it even possible? The blogosphere is abuzz with speculation and ideas about the empty inbox. Qblog   On a whim last summer, I challenged myself to actually empty my email inbox. It took me a few weeks. It was pretty weird to see [...]

I am thrilled to have my very first guest post!  Bethany emailed me to share her own 10 minute Tuesday project. She wrote, I love the idea of 10 minute Tuesdays, I also find myself putting off organizing because it feels too daunting. But you make it feel manageable. Here’s an in process project I wanted [...]

Today, I am giving my kids’ papers a home! This could relate to any item throughout your home that needs a more permanent home and not temporary storage. My girls spend time each day coloring and practicing their writing and so this paper seemed to be cluttering our dining room hutch day after day. I [...]

Do you have a place in your house that always seems to accumulate papers? A spot where no matter how many times you clear it off, an endless stream of papers appears?   For me, it is the kitchen counter.  The multiple piles of paper and mail are sorted. But a system breakdown occurs when [...]