de-cluttering my office/desk and bedrooms – any advice?

I use a 3 ring notebook for church notes and notes I take while studying the scriptures – it’s my scripture journal.  You could do the same with the homeschool ideas/inspiring quotes – just grab a 3 ring notebook and label tabs for ideas, quotes, etc.

For clothing storage, while I dream of one day ahaving a family closet we currently use 1 dresser for 3 boys (ages 9, 6, 4), one single drawer put under a bed for 3yo boy and 1yo boy, 1 drawer on the dresser mommy and daddy share for the current baby (5 mos), and the girls each have an underbed storage tub for their clothing because they wanted the closet for crafts on shelves. 

We have an attic, so I keep my totes of clothes there.  I have a “too big box” for clothes that the oldest girl doesn’t fit yet.  That way, I can buy shirts or things that are too big and store them. 

I also have a tote for each girl to put clothes in that she out-grows.  When a new tote is started, I label it with the age that the child is right then, so that as she’s putting things in that are too small, I know about what size child they’ll fit.  (Of course, my peanut-of-a-third-daughter wrecked the whole size thing – she’s so tiny compared to everyone else….anyway…..) 

I’ve been training myself to scan papers into the computer and saving them in Microsoft’s OneNote.  Not really important papers, just papers that I’m afraid to throw away, but don’t really think I’ll need.  Warranty info for not-so-big purchases, that type of thing.  Phone numbers.  business cards.  I scan all that stuff in.  That way, I have it, but I don’t have to touch it or see it.  I think maybe some people use Evernote, but the OneNote came with the Word program and all, so that’s what I use.

I keep a journal for church notes, prayer time journaling, and special scriptures I want to write down and remember. You can find cute journals at Hobby Lobby and most dollar stores. Then I store them in my nightstand or on the bookshelf. I don’t save church bulletins or post-its of anything. I’m a little garbage-happy sometimes, and throw anything away that I can’t find a home for or that would lead to clutter in my drawers, flat spaces, tables, etc. 

I have one accordion binder that I keep our voter registration, birth certificates, SS cards, vaccination exemptions, etc. in. Taxes are kept on the computer. We pay all bills online and through PayPal, so we don’t have folders of old bills to keep up with. We do all banking online, so we don’t even get bank statements in the mail. I love it this way! 

For clothes, we hang just about everything except socks, undies, and pj’s. Even play clothes are hung up because drawers stay neater when they have less in them. We were even able to get rid of the dresser in dd’s room and put her undergarments on shelves in her closet. Dressers drive me crazy! Dh and I have chests of drawers in our closet, so they are invisible to anyone who might be in our room and we try to keep them neat, but don’t stress if they get stuff on top of them. I also like those plastic storage drawers from Target or Walmart for clothes and toy storage. 

If I think of more later, I’ll write back!

Well, most bill companies send out confirmation emails when you pay a bill online. My husband archives those confirmation emails in a folder in his gmail account. Your bank account will also have record of any bills you pay with your bank account. You can go back to the day you opened the account for statements if you ever needed to prove to a credit card or electric company that you paid them. That has never happened to us though. If you’re using reputable companies for your services and PayPal for everything else, such as online purchases, it’s not likely that you’ll have any trouble.

Our home, auto, and life insurances are all with the same company, so that’s a convenient bill because we pay all three at once. Water, gas, and electricity are with local companies, so it is not hard to walk in and talk to someone if we ever had a problem. We don’t have car payments. We pay our mortgage through PayPal because we have a private lender. We use our debit cards for everything else (groceries, gas, clothing, everyday purchases). I am signed up with our bank to receive a text message every time one of our debit cards is used. It alerts me with the amount that came out and the remaining balance. We do keep one credit card open for an emergency that might exceed our emergency fund and savings accounts.

It’s very, very freeing to not keep up with all the paperwork anymore. We’ve been paperless for about 2 years now, and have not had one problem with needing to prove anything.

Thanks. Yes. I feel we really need to get free- my husband’s office is overrun with piles, files, and tubs full of paperwork. We have tubs in the attic too. He has been audited before and really hounded with audits on insurances, licenses, etc.. for his business so I understand his worry. But, he/we are drowning in paperwork. He is managing the bank accounts online, but still keeping the papers we receive! I am hopeful that for the new year, we can make some changes. Thanks for the advice. Very helpful. I will show it to him.

I know more and more mommas who are doing away with dressers. If I ever move to a home with normal closets, I would put cubbies inside the closets as MountainMamma discussed. My mother thought I was crazy to do away with the dressers, but now she sees that it really does keep the clothes neater. If I inspect,(which is my weakest area of parenting!) I know at a glance if they haven’t put things away right. And so do they, so they are able to manage it all much better. Also, the children end up with much more room in their bedrooms if the dressers aren’t there. Great if siblings share or if as in our case we don’t have a playroom or basement space that is usable.