No, I am not pitching my little sister, and no, even as a child I never wanted to pitch her! She and I are five years apart in age, which seemed to be just enough of an age gap to keep us from fighting much as children. That being said, I was the neat kid and she was the not so neat kid, but we have a brother and he was the super messy kid, so her mess never seemed that bad growing up.
My sister as graciously offered to share pictures of her junk this week, since I am still in the unpacking stage of things. Below are before and after pictures of her guest room/ office. One thing I noticed when uploading her pictures was the enormous amount of paper clutter in the office. I struggle with paper clutter as well, it seems to multiply if you don’t take care of it immediately. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with paper clutter?
Before
After
Now it is time to link up. I have switched from Mr. Linky to MckLinky, but it works the same. Link up your actual post not your blog’s home page. Next to your name, write a brief description about what you pitched, for example: The Happy Housewife (My Little Sister). Finally visit the other bloggers who link up and give them some comment love.
Amy @ MomsToolbox says
Wow! Looks beautiful! Does she want to come visit???
Katie says
My suggestion for dealing with paper clutter is to first be VERY MINDFUL of what you print. My mom prints every email she gets, every article she reads, etc and you would not believe the paper clutter on her desk! I work for a ‘paperless’ company (which means about 90% of my work is done electronically, even notes are taken electronically!) and it has made me realize the benefit of archiving things to computer files and discs. My desk is clean, and it’s so much easier to keep organized too!! 🙂
Cassy says
I have a bin for “deal with asap”, and a couple others that I have labeled to help keep me organized. Using the metal folder holder in the closet on the shelf you have a pic of would help too. We bought a bunch of folder files to sort stuff in.
Angie @ Many Little Blessings says
Wow — that looks fabulous!
And, I had to laugh because I first thought, “You want to pitch your sister?” 😉
elizabeth says
wow! what a dramatic before and after!
Polly says
Looks great. But I’d love to have a better look at those drapes. They are lovely.
Kathleen says
Paper clutter – commit to tossing or filing as soon as you get it so it doesn’t go into that Pile of Oblivion! I stand by the trash can when I get the mail, so there’s never that Pile on the kitchen counter that grows and grows.
Diane says
I have a paper problem as well. So does my dh. What I try to do is go though it once a week. Pitch the ads, papers we do not need to keep. File what we do need to keep. I go though the files once a year and pitch what I no longer need in there. Tax’s go in a file and in a box in the attic for safe keeping.
I am pitching this week!!! We have a closed in back porch that ends up with all our clutter. So I started working on it this weekend. Now we can walk back there!!! I need to get some plastic box’s for some fabric I have. My dd even said how nice it was to walk though there without walking over stuff to get to the door. lol.
Your sisters office looks great. I love the desk and drapes. she did a good job. I also like how she has a small book case in the closet!! Neat idea.
Mary says
In regards to paper clutter, I don’t have that big a problem but I sure grew up with it! I heard a staying once that stuck with me… OHIO (Only Handle It Once). So, I’m not really good at only handling it once, but I aim to do it as little as possible.
Things that come in the house get sorted in the kitchen. I immediately toss/recycle what ever is not being kept. Then I make a keep pile and a shred pile. Those then make their way to the den (our little “office”) and the keep stuff usually ends up on my desk for a few days and the shred stuff goes in the shred basket.
Bills waiting to be paid are stashed on my desk in a little envelope sorter type thing until the next payday. We’re also lucky enough to have room for a small filing cabinet where we keep our keep stuff, so statements or documents we want to keep are filed away. Once a year (usually around Christmas since that’s when I oddly have enough time to go through it!) I’ll go through the filing cabinet and toss/shred things that aren’t important anymore and move the important documents to the “permanent” file (a different draw just for long-term keeping).
So, all that to say the best thing is just to make yourself stay on top of it and have a “home” for papers you need to keep.
Michele says
The first thing I noticed was the view out the window of the palm trees! It looks like a nice place to have an office. Great job with the cleanup.
MNKristy says
Oh my gosh is that a great transformation! Great job sis! My paper tip is to immediately take care of all mail that you bring into the house. Immediately pitch the junk mail (I usually toss it into the recycling before I even bring it in the house) and then file the rest using the following system:
http://mnkristy.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/talk-about-tuesday/
Rebecca C says
My only tip is, don’t open the mail unless you can deal with it all at once. When you do open it, pay your bill and file what needs file. All the junk mail can go right to the shredder/recycle bin/trash. Things that need attention later are set on the keyboard of the computer (its hard to ignore something there.
If I don’t do this our 19 month old will help me by ripping open envelopes and tearing at magazines and catalogs. We also have a glass ‘cookie jar’ type container that we put receipts in. Then we only have to sort and file those once the jar is full.
Jen@Balancing Beauty and Bedlam says
yea for your sister….now how are your boxes coming. I am feeling for you. UGH!!
i need to join you with this itch to pitch…but I still have 2 more weeks before I can get to it. Not good. 🙂
Somebody's Mimi says
Please come and do my office. Seriously, touch the paper once… look at it then put it in the proper place, it is either trash or it is filed. Plan and simple… the same goes for toys, clothes, groceries, jewelry, photos, etc.
Tina says
Wow she did a great job! One thing I do to reduce paper clutter is that I have a good filing system, a place for all the bills/important papers to actually go. And I make sure to toss junk just as soon as it enters my home. I keep coupons in a basket on my counter until I can put them away but other advertisement and such junk goes straight to the recycling bin!
Mary says
Looks great, little sis. But my problem is that my husband can’t “find” anything when I clean up. Even in the mess, he thinks he knows where everything is until I pick up. If you find a way to train your husband, please let me know. BTW I am the mother in law of Little Sis. 🙂
Sarah says
I have GOT to get the motivation to organize this house! What do you consider to be organizing essentials? Do you spend money on baskets, rubbermaid containers, etc, or do you just work with what you have?
Anne-Marie says
She puts me to shame & good for her! The office looks wonderful! And like someone else said, I was drawn first to the view out those windows. I have office envy.
Paper is my enemy and I am it’s prisoner. I’m learning to quickly discard mail as it comes in, but I’m a long way from freedom from papers. It doesn’t help that I have 4 other people’s papers/messes to contend with daily.
Todd says
Your brother was super messy, hmm?
TheHappyHousewife says
I thought super messy was putting it nicely… 😉
Brandie says
Ohh I have been inspired off to clean up the messes!
allison walker says
I am all about organization. I love love plastic accordion filers. I buy the ones that hold a whole sheet of paper and limited spaces. Like I have one that has 12 spots. Perfect for keeping tax receipts broken up buy month.I buy one for each broad subject and then you can label each slot inside and ofcourse label the outside. You can even color code them. Its great for kids papers,bills,coupons,stationary etc. Anyway it works for me!
Savings Ninja says
Wow, that office looks beautiful. I am jealous! I will get mine looking that clean sooner or later!
I am by no means an expert on paper clutter, but the best method I’ve found is like other posters have mentioned and handle it right away. I try to deal with mail and other papers as soon as I open it. I sort through it and recycle what I can, shred what needs to get shredded, and any bills that need to get paid get put in one pile, and I try to clear that pile out once a week, every week. Of course, that’s easier said than done.
I’ve set up electronic billing for as many things as I can, and that helps a TON. Also, sign up for e-delivery of as much stuff as possible. The VERY best way to deal with paper clutter is avoid it in the first place 🙂
Lisa says
So when I saw the first pictures I felt better about my mess but seeing the after makes me think I need to stop reading blogs and get working lol.
Lawanda says
WOW! I bet that felt awesome 🙂
Amy-Cutting Coupons in KC says
I moved our paper shredder to the garage and now I bring the mail into the garage and toss the junk in the recycle bin, shred whatever needs to be shredded and only bring important things I need to keep into the house. I am amazed at how this has cut down the clutter on my desk. I also file the papers I do bring in the house immediately. This prevents paper clutter from piling up, important papers from getting lost and prevents bills from being payed late.
Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship says
on paper clutter: A lot of clutter results when I don’t know where to put things. So I try to have places for (most) things – I’m not organized enough to have a place for EVERYthing! Important “places”:
*a place for incoming mail (so it can sit there until my once-a-week session with the recycle bin close by
*a place for “to file” items that come in the mail and just need to be “kept” – this is a basket on top of our file cabinet
*organized financial file folders in a drawer for every category imaginable
*files for each month for stuff that is “coming up” but not quickly enough for the paper to remain on the bulletin board, desk, or table
Areas I struggle with:
*stuff that needs to be taken care of quickly
*stuff that needs to be taken care of with no timeline (this is my worst clutter!)
*ongoing projects that I’m afraid if I “put them away” I’ll forget to tackle them