Last time, I went room by room and identified what needed to be done to organize and make most efficient use of the space in my small house. School is starting again in a month and I wanted to have everything in its place and better systems for some of my everyday activities.

I started in the office, concentrating in the computer area. College seems to bring with it numerous credit card offers and bills and notifications that always seem to be tucked in various places on the desk, asking to be thrown away or forgotten. So I got very a simple, $3 silver mail sorter that went nicely with our translucent blue desk (who says you can’t be functional and stylish?.) There are slots for outgoing mail, my mail and my boyfriend’s. Using this simple system, we have been able to keep track of our mail much better. Now I can pay my bills on time and not have mini heart attacks when I can’t find that one, really important piece of mail.

If you are anything like me, disorganization is not simply limited to your desk. No maam; it extends also to planner and mind. It’s difficult to remember due dates in the midst of piles of homework, so I got a small dry erase board from a dollar store and stuck it to the nearest wall with all the due dates for our monthly payments. It’s not written down and forgotten about in some small place in my planner or on a note that will get lost; it’s in a place that I can’t help but look at. Read More »

Last time, I looked up some great websites for ideas on how to help me de-clutter and reorganize my fairly cluttered and unorganized home. Since then, I’ve been using my internet resources and going room by room to identify problem areas and reorganize things to make more efficient use of space and less complicated day by day living.

I started in the room that gave me the most problems, the office. But, as I realized when I started to go to work in this room, doing anything drastic here would be fairly fruitless. It serves a very practical purpose of housing all the things that we have no place for elsewhere and serves as my boyfriend’s dressing room for work. What I’m saying is, most of the stuff in here is his to do with as he pleases.

I’m concentrating on the computer area, where I am going to create a more efficient filing system, a better bill paying system, a better storage system for desk supplies and for old school work.

My bedroom is small as it is, made more so by the volume of things we have in it. My main objective in this room is to create more space, organize my shoes and accessories, create a tidier laundry system, and find a way to store my pants in my ridiculously small closet. Read More »

Finals were rough this year. Not that they are ever especially fun, but for some reason I had an inordinately difficult time sitting down at my desk and forcing myself to write. And once I did, I would realize that I didn’t have the right book in the right place and I couldn’t find these notes or those notes and I could hardly type with the mountain of work piling up, threatening to topple over onto my keyboard at any moment.

I found myself in that predicament because I tend to get unorganized when I have a lot of stuff to do. Dangerously so. Which is bad, because I have a hard time concentrating when things need to be straightened, or cleaned, or filed away. I can’t work unless my workspace is clean and everything I need is at hand.

And so, I thought that I would take the first weeks of the summer before I start classes in July and totally reorganize and idiot-proof my office, and, as massive an undertaking as it will be, my entire home. Read More »