Well the end of the month is here and you know what that means don’t you?  Time to round-up the work we’ve done on our filing cabinets and all that paper.  I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve done and hoping this round-up was the push you needed to finally get it accomplished.  I  know it was for me and you can see my own two posts here and here.

Please link up below to a post on your site that shows us both your before and after pictures and remember to use the direct link to your round-up post and not to your homepage.  That’s helpful for those of us who might not get a chance to take a peek at your post until later.  Also, as a courtesy, if you are going to participate please be kind and link back to this post within your post.

Those that link up before Sunday at 6:00 pm PST will be eligible to win a copy of the Scanalog software that will help organize and categorize all the magazine articles we find helpful but have no idea what to do with.  The lucky winner will be selected randomly from the Mr. Linky below.

Next month we are moving on to getting our recipes organized and I can’t wait because mine are a mess!

For more info on Org Junkie’s Monthly Round-Up and how to participate please visit here.

Reminder:  Also if you haven’t done so already, today is the last day to enter my Bloggy Giveaways giveaway :)

Rounding up the filing cabinet/paper piles is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

So anyway instead I’m going to hopefully answer a very popular question that I’ve received over the last couple weeks.  Many of you have inquired as to how long to keep certain financial documents and I’ve hesitated to provide that information for a couple of reasons.  First it seems that depending who you ask you might get a different answer, making me a little nervous to communicate such advice with so many variables.   Plus I live in Canada so my guidelines are entirely different than those living elsewhere.

However, despite all that, I know that you can’t really get a handle on your overflowing paperwork if you don’t have the necessary information you need to pare it all down.  So what I’m going to do for you instead is link you to various sources with applicable information and I’ll let you decide what works best for you.  Thanks to those of you who kindly helped me out here :)

Canada:

Canada Revenue Agency ~ Keeping Records

United States:

Internal Revenue Service ~ Recordkeeping for Individuals

Professional Organizer M. Martone ~ Handy Reference Guide

Suze Ormon ~ Financial Clutter, What To Keep And What To Get Rid Of

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Okay so I know this post, although important, is a little dull so to liven things up how about sharing with me one of your own pet peeves.  I figure it’s only fair since I shared one of mine with you :)   I’ve got quite a list actually.  Here let me give you another…generic post-it notes, they just don’t stick!  See easy……now it’s your turn.

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Just a reminder that Mr. Linky for this month’s filing cabinet round-up will go up on January 30th.   Participants will be eligible to win Scanalog software.  Join us!

How long should you keep your financial records? is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

I’m intrigued by new products.  I’m intrigued by the possibility of new products.  I’m the type of girl that loves trade shows and being able to touch and feel new products without having to commit to buying them.  I like to hear the spiels and touch the packaging.

At the Professional Organizer’s Conference I attended in November one of the products I was introduced to was the Homebox Filing System.  I’d never heard of this product before but I saw a box on the table and so of course I had to know more :)

Basically the Homebox is a ready-made filing system.  The beautiful box comes with nine pre-printed heavy duty storage folders to organize everything from career and education to health and finances.  What I was immediately intrigued by was the file folders themselves.  They are gorgeous!  But oh by the way the folders don’t cascade up like that when you open the box.  I asked!  That would have been really cool but apparently it’s for demonstration purposes only.  Oh well.

Each folder provides a helpful list of what to keep inside.  I really liked that.  Even though this is a Canadian company, the folders are listed with pertinent information (resources, websites and tips) specific for each location depending on where you purchase from (US/Canada).  Very nice.  Apparently each folder holds up to 200 sheets of paper too!

In Canada we have a great show called the Dragon’s Den.  Have you heard of it?  A panel of investors are approached by entrepreneurs and each investor has to decide whether or not to invest with them.  So good!  When I was looking around YouTube the other day I was so surprised to see that Jodi with her Homebox Filing System was one of the guests.  It’s fun to watch and hear her story.  You can view it here if you are interested.

So in summing up here, I believe this box is intended to house the really important stuff and isn’t designed to replace your filing cabinet altogether.  Although I guess it could depending on how much paper you have.  Also I’m a tad concerned about the price at $40.00 US per box because I’m just not sure how affordable that is for the average person.  But it is well made and serves a great purpose of keeping all of your most important papers central in one location.  Just some things to consider.

The website lists the various places where the Homebox can be purchased either online or in store.

I have another filing system that I want to share with you tomorrow but only if you aren’t sick of me talking about filing systems yet.   Good grief, who knew there’d be so much to say about them :)

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Note:  I call these product highlights and not reviews because I haven’t actually tried these products out.  They are just things that make me say “well now that’s a neat idea, I should share it with my readers!”.

The Homebox Filing System is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Before:

After:

Here’s what I did:

Using my Dymo LetraTag Pluslabel maker (which I will be happily reviewing soon!) I re-did the main category labels and inserted them into the yellow plastic tabs that are attached to the yellow hanging file folders.

Using Word I created and printed labels for all my sub-categories and then affixed those to new manila white file folders.

I alphabetized all my categories to make finding the one I need faster.

I’m actually excited about filing now and I have a feeling I might even be able to improve on my once a year filing habit now.  If that happens it would be a great outcome for about an hour’s worth of work.  Yay!

How are you making out with your filing?

Participate in Org Junkie’s Monthly Round-Up in January and you could win your own Scanalog software!

My filing system makeover is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

What does an organized filing system mean to you? 

This was the question I recently asked on Twitter and I got some great responses:

It means being able to access what I am looking for without destroying my house. Alphabetical, by topic.

When my DH asks where the paperwork for “X” is I can find it without hesitation. I have easy access to our important paper

An organized file system means I can find anything I want in the 1st place I seek it, saving time & $ & eliminating frustration.

Easy, not a lot of work to maintain, helps me find what I need when I need it. I have huge piles of “need to file.” I need a cure

A system in which I can easily see where to file items and can easily retrieve them when needed. Easy purging is also essential.

It’s the difference between sanity and insanity.

It would change my life. That is the area I struggle w/ the most! At work, I made it perfectly. Not @ home.

And my personal favorite:

To me it says, “You are in the wrong house, back away slowly and whistle in an inconspicuous manner until you make your getaway.”

Can you identify with any of those?

I’m a visual person so the first link I want to direct you to for help is a video from MonkeySee which is such a great site for visual folks like me.

How to set up a filing system @ MonkeySee

Professional Organizer Vicky Norris explains why an alpha system might not be the best solution in this video ~ Filing System Tips

And a few other helpful links of various filing methods and systems:

Filing Piling Smiling @ Organize U - Allison also offers a free e-guide, Take Back Your Home Office in 14 Days, which you can sign up for by visiting here.

Time to Clear Out the Files @ Thoughts from Miller Manor

I hate filing! @ Messy Moms

How to make and use a financial binder for your paperwork @ Stephanie’s Mommy Brain

File It @ My Road to Sanity

Reduce Filing Induced Headaches: Simplify Your System @ One Organized Life

Why Organizing Paper is so Challenging @ by the creators of the JOYS Filing System

This post sponsored by Scanalog ~ win a copy of their software!

photo courtesy of S.C. Asher

Link~Tastic – The Filing System Edition! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

I didn’t file one time last year!  Not once. My mom will be horrified but we aren’t telling her so it will be fine.  Except she reads my blog so I’m pretty sure I’m going to hear about it :)

The reason I put the filing cabinet first on the monthly round-up list was because mine really needed to be done.  Here’s my “to file” basket that normally resides on top of my filing cabinet:

That is a years worth of filing.  The basket is only 4.5 inches deep.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.   I had to check my blog to find out exactly when it was I had filed last and believe it or not it was Nov 2007.  You can read that post and find out a little more about my system here.  In a nutshell, I put my paper filing into the basket and when the basket is full I file it away.  Because I don’t hang onto a lot of paper it takes awhile for the basket to fill up hence the once a year filing :)

Last night I sat down on the floor in the living room with my basket, turned on my taped Regis and Kelly, and tackled the pile.  First I sort it into subjects…like with like….all the phone bills together, all the bank statements together, etc.  It took me exactly 20 minutes to do the sort, I know this because Regis and Kelly’s Host Chat was just finishing up when I was done :)  Then the filing is the easy part really.  It simply consists of pulling what’s in the cabinet and replacing it with the new information. In most cases (bills and statements particularly) I only keep a years worth of information.**

I’m not advocating this once a year filing for everyone.  In fact I’m going to try and set a goal to do it at least twice a year from now on.  This just happens to be a system that is working for me, so I don’t want to mess with it too much.  Using baskets to set boundaries and limits is an ongoing theme in my life so why would this area of my life be any different.

Now I thought I’d give you a run down of the way I have my filing cabinet set up.  My filing cabinet is two drawers but I only use the bottom one.  The top one is my husbands and I don’t even open that one…it’s a little scary :)

I have eleven main categories identified by a main tab and in hanging file folders and then each of the sub categories are divided with manila file folders that are clearly labeled.

So my categories (I’ve listed the sub categories in brackets) look like this:

House (Purchase Info, Mtg Info, Assessments/Property Tax)
Taxes (sub divided by year)
Bank Statements (Chequing, Savings, Credit Line)
Investments (RSPs, RESPs)
Bills (Phone, Gas, Hydro, Cable)
Credit Cards
Van (Purchase Info, Repairs)
Insurance (House, Van, Medical)
Employment (Resume, Contracts, Paystubs)
Misc (Subscriptions, Aeroplan, Airmiles, Medic Alert, etc.)
Travel (sub divided by location)

Note: my product manuals are filed separately using this system.

That’s about it. Again, this is just one way of doing it. I’m hoping over the next couple of weeks to introduce other great filing systems to you in order to give you some ideas to help you come up with the system that is just right for you.

I don’t want to end this post without forgetting to tell you what our very first prize of the year will be.  I’m very excited to tell you that if you participate in January’s Filing Cabinet Round-Up at the end of the month, you will be eligible to win a great product called Scanalog.  You may even remember this product from a giveaway I did last year.  In case you aren’t familiar with it here is a little more about it.

SCANALOG is a CD-ROM software system you can use to store, catalog and retrieve your favorite articles from your favorite magazines. There are eleven Master Categories in Scanalog that cover a range of women’s interests, from Home Decoration to Gardening to My Spirit.  Basically it means you scan in all those magazine clippings you have lying around and categorize them to be able to find what you need whenever you need it with a simple click of the mouse.  Fantastic!

Interested in joining the challenge, more information is here.

Don’t forget to take a picture of your paper piles before you get started and have a great weekend!

** Please be sure to follow the appropriate government guidelines in your area for how long to keep documents.

My filing system is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

It’s here, time to round-up posts related to organizing our office spaces!

Don’t be shy, we can’t wait to see what you’ve done.  So whether you’ve made a big change or a little change, it’s all good.  If something is working a little bit easier for you with some changes you were able to incorporate then let us celebrate that with you.   Please link up below to a post on your site that shows us both your before and after pictures and remember to use the direct link to your round-up post and not to your homepage.  That’s helpful for those of us who might not get a chance to take a peek at your post until later.  * Also, as a courtesy, if you are going to participate please be kind and link back to this post within your post. *

I want to give a big shout-out to our August/September sponsor, The Organize It Mom!  If you haven’t had a chance to check out Laurieann’s products then you really must.  I wrote a review over on my review site a little while ago which you can read here.  Laurieann will be giving away a $60.00 prize package to one lucky round-up participant from either Aug or Sept.  To be eligible for this amazing prize please link up by Oct 1st at 6:00 PST.  Winner will be selected at random.

For more info on Org Junkie’s Monthly Round-Up and to visit previous round up entries go here.  Interested in being a future sponsor?  E-mail me!

Thanks all!  Next month we are moving on to our craft/sewing spaces!

Org Junkie’s Monthly Round-Up ~ The Office! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Well here we are almost at the end of September and I’m only now putting up Mr. Link-Tastic.  I’ve selected some excellent posts that I hope answer many of the questions you have in regards to organizing your office.

One of the main problems with organizing an office is all the paper.  Paper, paper everywhere!  What to do with it all, that is the question.  I really didn’t feel qualified to answer this question considering my idea of paper management is filing once a year.  And no I’m not kidding.

So I thought I’d link you up with some ladies that are a bit more knowledgeable on the subject.

Professional Organizer, Brandie Kajino’s three part series on the topic of organizing your home office paper walks you through the process of organizing this area one step at a time.

Organize Your Home Office Paper ~ A Crash Course, Part 2 and Part 3.

Ariane Benefit is another Professional Organizer who knows what she is talking about when it comes to organizing all that paper.  She wrote an amazing series that is just loaded with helpful information.  Really, really good stuff:

The Issue of Having Too Much Paper ~ Part 1

The Issue of Emotional Attachment ~ Part 2

The Issue of The Quality Tools We Choose ~ Part 3

The Issue of Categorizing Your Paper ~ Part 4

Want to listen to some great paper tips instead?  Try this podcast from The Savvy Organizer ~ Dealing With Paper

For the crafty types out there take a look at this craft tutorial for how to cover magazine holders from One Busy Mommy.  Don’t forget you can also use cereal boxes as magazine holders as well.

10 Easy Steps to an Organized Home Office

I’ve just discovered a new site called Monkeysee with how-to videos on so many different topics.  They just happen to have a whole series on How to Organize Your Home Office.  I’m such a visual person so this works really well for me.

How about a little home office eye candy from decor8?  Beautiful!

Another great site, SmallNotebook.org answers the question, What Papers Can You Get Rid Of? and also talks about keeping a correspondence notebook so that you never pay a late bill again.

Finally I love this complete home office makeover by Simply Stated ~ A Home Office That Works Overtime ~ this is a very thorough post complete with pictures.  The pictures are a little on the small side but if you click on the pictures you can see them in larger version.  Enjoy!

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You’ve still got time to enter the office challenge of Org Junkie’s Monthly Organizing Round-Up.  Hopefully today’s links give you the inspiration you need to do just that.  Go get em!

Link-Tastic ~ The Office Edition! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Welcome Marcia!

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Declutter your computer

Today I want to talk about an area of the office that may just be one of my favourite things to organise – your computer!

Because we can’t SEE computer clutter as obviously as we can see physical clutter, we often don’t realise it’s there but believe me, it’s still affecting you.

When you open your Inbox, you feel drained at the sight of all those emails, your computer runs slow because there’s so many photos on there (well, hello, they’ve been there for the last 3 years!) and when you click into your Google Reader, you can’t BELIEVE how much some people post because you went through your blogs for 3 hours yesterday and now there are 127 unread items yet again!

Sound familiar?

Let’s look at 4 places where you can declutter electronically:

Blogs

How many blogs are you following in your Google Reader, Bloglines or other feed reader? Do you know how long you take to read all of those blogs every day?

Take some time to go through and declutter those you tend to skim over. Get to know your comfort number. Mine is around 42 – 45 and I know when I start adding more and more blogs without deleting any, I start feeling more and more overwhelmed at the sight of all those unread items!

Free downloads

We women like free things, don’t we? As a result, we download anything and everything we can find that’s for free. If it’s free, it’s got to be good, right? Right?

No, actually, it’s not all good. Not only are you cluttering up your computer but you can’t possibly use all the things that are out there because we’re living in an information overload society.

At one point I had about 6 different grocery shopping lists on my computer (all free downloads). None of them quite worked for me so I made my own :)

Email

Mmmm, email. My clients need help with email more than any other thing in their office, and paper’s a close second. That’s because email’s so fast and because we don’t use it correctly.

Get familiar with the delete key (my favourite key on the keyboard) and start deleting. Delete immediately once you’ve replied to an email and don’t file unless you absolutely have to.

Disable all the notifications from social networking sites like Facebook. I only get friend requests, messages and notes on my wall in my inbox. The rest I’ll see when I log on.

Here again, decide on your comfort level for emails and make sure you process until you can breathe again.

I set a daily goal of deleting at least 50 items so once I’m done with my inbox, I go through my Sent Items and delete, delete, delete ;)

As a matter of interest, how many emails are in your inbox right now? Please comment :)

Photos

Now that we’ve all gone digital, it’s so easy to snap, snap, snap and then snap some more. Download pictures regularly, delete the bad ones there and then, and save to CD or DVD regularly.

I only print gorgeous shots (because printing is so expensive) so if I wouldn’t want to print it, I don’t keep it on my computer. If I want to use pics on the blog, I compress them immediately so that they take up 50KB as opposed to 1MB.

My coaching challenge to you

Print out this post.

Tackle one of these sections every week until they’re all done.

Let me know when you do them.

Happy organising!

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who works with small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. Marcia shares practical organising and decluttering tips on her Organising Queen blog and anything else that takes her fancy like photos, recipes, etc. on Marcia’s take charge blog.

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Sponsored by The Organize It Mom!

Organizing your computer is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

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The Re-Purposed Office

Whether you work from home, work outside of the home, or work at running your home, every household has some sort of an office space.  Maybe you’re lucky enough to have an entire room dedicated to your office.  Or maybe you get by with a sliver of kitchen counter and a junk drawer.  Whatever the case, chances are, your space could use some good re-organization.  Before you run to your local office supply store to load up on products and supplies, do some shopping around your own home to see what items you can re-purpose.  You’ll save yourself some cash, you’ll be helping out the planet by going “green,” your office will meld more with the look and feel of the rest of your home and you’ll create a much more inviting and productive space to work.  Here are some examples of things I’ve done in my own home, as well as with some of my organizing clients.

Need a space for files?  I turned an old, unused Hope Chest into a lateral filing cabinet/bench. Now it’s an eclectic piece in my office that is functional, discreet, beautiful, and sentimental:

Drawer dividers are rarely the perfect fit for every situation.  Plus they can be expensive and sterile looking.  Instead, try empty stationary boxes and box tops as drawer organizers:

Need a desk space? I painted the surface of this old, inexpensive kitchen table and turned it into a desk for two. My youngest daughter will often sit across from me and do homework as I finish up my own work.

The top of your desk needs to be functional, too.  A floral frog can hold pens on a desktop:

An antique sugar mold can contain supplies:

A small pot or urn can really give your desk a feeling of sophistication and importance:

As you work on your desk project for this month’s round-up, try going “shopping” around your house for otherwise overlooked and under-used items you can put to work in your home office space.  Let me know what you come up with . . . I’d love to discover more ideas and options!

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For those of you who might be needing a little extra push to get your office organized, be sure to check out Debbie’s Procrastination Challenge.  Thanks Debbie for being here with us today!

Organizing your office the inexpensive way is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie