Temporary? Insanity

Paper is my nemesis. Which is mildly ironic what with me being a writer and all. What used to be a neverending source of potential delight has now become the most excruciating form of torture. I hate paper and I stuff garbage and recycling bags with it as often as I possibly can.

Sometimes I have nightmares of being smothered by the stuff. Seriously. I’m not making that up.

So when I decided that ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH and I needed to get things organized around here, paper was the first thing that came to mind. Much as I’d like to, I can’t chuck it all in the bin, because most of it isn’t mine. There are Emma and Becca’s school papers, Neil’s clinic, church, and Lion’s Club papers, medical stuff, bills, magazines, flyers, bank statements . . . I used to “file” these papers in a box or rubbermaid tote that would eventually work its way upstairs to our little-used office to be “sorted through later.” Yeah. There are about a dozen such boxes kicking around up there now, and we have a tendency to lose things in the VanderHorst household.

But no more! The moment a piece of paper comes in the door now, it has a place to go:

Kim's Spiffy New Mail Sorting System

There’s a file for each member of the family, a “To File” file, a file for magazines and one for fliers, and a file for “Action Items” (translation: papers that need something done about them). If things are ticking along well, the “To File” file will be filling up, and the “Action Items” file will be emptying. Our mail sorter has been in place for nearly a week now and I’ve been able to find would-usually-be-hopelessly-lost paperwork several times already. Effort? Consider yourself rewarded.

I was on such an organizational high after creating my Mail Sorter, that I just kept going. I made a meal planning system wherein all our usual dinners are written on pieces of index card and kept here:

Meal Planning System - Index Cards are my New Best Friends

I sort through the cards when making my meal plan each week (I simply write my choices on the calendar). I then put the index cards up on my new “Chore Board”, two or three at a time, and when I remove them I put them at the back of my index card holder so that I don’t do the same meal too often (I have the tendency to make my personal favourites over and over again – we eat a LOT of lasagne around here).

Mommy's Chore Board

Also on my chore board (the kids get such a kick out of the fact that Mommy has a chore board too) are some magnets I made for myself out of index cards, a labeller, and magnet strips. These are to remind me of things I should do on a daily basis to help our home be 1) happy and 2) functional. I’ll likely add more magnets as more occur to me, but these will do for now.

My “Music Time” magnet reminded me to play the piano yesterday afternoon. My girls laughed and danced themselves silly while I played. I haven’t done that in MONTHS. It made me happy. It made my girls happy. And all because of a homemade magnet. I feel kind of silly that I struggle to remember to do what makes me happy and NEED reminding, but that’s the truth of it.

What simple things make you happy? Consider doing one of them today!