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Orderliness: What if everything DOESN'T have a place?
- This topic has 31 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by
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Thanks for your post, jkkyer. I’m old school, too & enjoy hanging onto old photos, as well, especially since my mom has Alzheimer’s and my FIL passed away a couple years ago. I would, however, like to get a bit more digital in the receipts/bank statements/etc. category. We have home, farm, business, & medical papers, which all NEED to be filed, but the incredible amount of space paperwork takes up is overwhelming. I try to get rid of anything older than 7 years, but hubby says we should at least keep 5 years. Any advice on this? Has anyone out there used NeatDesk or anything similar? I do pay bills online & keep those receipts in a folder in my email, but we still get paper bills & I need a better way to organize for taxes & such.
I use an app called Scanner Pro that uses my ipad camera to scan documents and photos (works with iphones too). I can upload my scans directly from the app to my Google Drive account. We keep folders for our bills and accounts there…everything. I also use it to scan my children’s art and schoolwork. It makes beautiful, colorful, digital copies. Quick and easy.
The app we use is called Tiny Scan. You take a photo of your document with your phone, and it converts it to a PDF. You can then save it to your phone or email it to yourself or someone else. We do have a printer/scanner, but this is quicker and easier. We’ve used it for bills, receipts, even doctor’s office paperwork! I never thought about using it for children’s art!
For those of you who feel you still need actual paper documents in a filing cabinet, do you mind if I ask what types of documents you’re saving? And is there a particular reason why they can’t be scanned and saved digitally? Just curious. 😉
I’m no where near as clutter-free as I’d like…mainly the dreaded paper trail. But one thing that hellos me is I bought a pretty foyer cabinet with several drawers and 2 larger compartments. Hubby and I have a drawer for keys/sunglasses/wallets, etc. If I see anything of his laying around I just throw it in the drawer:) Kids have space for their stuff, which saves running up and down steps. We tried the basket on the steps idea but weren’t as good about putting stuff away weekly as above poster so it just stayed stuffed and I got tired of looking at it! At least in a drawer it might be messy but I don’t see it:) The cabinet/table is also a perfect spot to display our SCM art portfolio pics:)
Lindsey, the only things that I keep in a few hanging binders with page protectors are birth certificates, social security cards, auto and home titles, goat registrations, current Insurance declaration pages, and emergency contacts. I have scans of these too but must have the originals for the first three listed.
I use one-inch hanging binders that fit nicely in a filing drawer.
THe only documents that we keep hard copies of are birth certificates, SS cards, titles and tax forms (seven years worth). WE file them in accordian files. Again, we’re old school and we like to be able to put our hands on those types of things.
I am just loving reading everyone’s comments here. It’s hard to comment on so many posts and keep them straight. I truly apprecite hearing from so many with similar struggles. As for the suggestions for grace given that I’ve recently moved, I know what you’re saying, but this would be a problem whether we had moved or not…I’m sure certain things would be different, bt it’s essentially the same root problem…recent move or not. But I do appreciate the kind words.
Lindsey! I’m so glad you chimed it! I was hoping you would. 🙂 I love your tiny house leanings and all you’ve done moving toward minimalism. I feel like I’ve *read* a lot on these topics, whereas you’ve actually done it. You said this:
And I’m just going to say this…if you have to clean off a surface and put everything into a box, maybe it’s time to evaluate that stuff and decide if you really need it or not. Ask yourself: is it useful? is it beautiful? do I use it regularly? what is my attachment to this? what if I let it go?
I go through this thought process sometimes, but not often enough I’m sure. And I’m still left feeling, What do I do with this?? Lindsey, I wish you could just be my mentor through this!
I think part of my problem is that I don’t do a very good job accepting my limiatations on space. :/ I have been thinking about the stuff (not including papers), but alll of the discussion here about paper clutter and scanning has me thinking about that now. I’ve heard people talk about scanning all kinds of things, but it has always seemed too time consuming and really, why would you even want copies of, say, every receipt. So I just kind of wrote it off as adding to digital clutter. But after reading some of the comments here, and thinking of an app with a phone or ipad that you can use instead of an actual scanner, then keeping those organized in digital files — that seems more appealing than I had previously thought.
Is there a benefit to using GoogleDocs vs OneNote or EverNote or whatever else is out there? We have an old PC that I can use if needed, but we primarily work from Chromebooks and ipad/KindleFire, so I’d prefer something that doesn’t need a Windows operating system.
momto2blessings, I’ love that foyer cabinet you described…art work atop and all! 🙂 Functional and pretty — nice job!
I don’t have much time right now, as we are on our way to some friends’ house, but I’m going to PM you later.
As for the receipts….I don’t ever save receipts! I’ve regretted that a handful of times, but obviously not enough to start saving them. I usually tell the person checking me out that I don’t want my receipt and walk out without it. I don’t like my purse being a trashcan either, and receipts almost always end up in my purse and in the trash when I clean it out. I can understand saving receipts for business tax ride offs or whatever, and if that were me, I would use the Tiny Scan app as soon as I got the receipt to make it digital and file it right away.
Space limitations….my thoughts on that are to look at it as a positive thing rather than negative. When we moved out of 3,200 sq. ft. into 1,058 sq. ft., my attitude wasn’t, “Crud, this is such a small space. Where am I going to put everything? It’s never going to work.” My thoughts were, “Oh boy! This is exciting! I have 1,000 sq ft, and it’s going to be so fun to get creative with our space!” Like it literally makes me giddy. I love the challenge of seeing how little we can live with. We continue to purge, believe it or not. The kids have fewer toys than ever before. I went from two sets of dishes with 10 place settings each to 1 set with 8 place settings. My husband and I are sharing a closet with 3 rods, and 1 rod is totally empty.
This has been so freeing, and I can’t stop! Lol
Hubby and I have pretty much decided that when the kids move out, we are going to get us one of those tiny houses on wheels to be our permanent home so we can just go wherever we want and take everything we own with us. (I know. We are crazy.)
Just want to say that I ‘m loving Tiny Scan right now. I went through a huge pile of paperwork & threw out a lot. The rest got scanned. Now to toss all those unwanted papers! Thanks for all the posts. I’ve truly been trying to let go of things. And I know God is helping me with this. It also helps me to have friends at church that I can bless with items I’m getting rid of. I would love to be a tiny house person, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be that free of items. I’m afraid we’re all pretty sentimental & like to hang on to particular things. It’s a work in progress, I guess. 🙂
I could totally get into the idea of a tiny house. It would be so cozy! and simple! But…. then I’d have to give up my dream of handfuls of grandchildren visiting me all at the same time. 🙂
I’ve made a space for some categories of things that just ended up lying around. DH has a habit of putting various tools, odds and ends, parts that have fallen off things, etc on a kitchen counter and leaving them there for weeks. He gets annoyed if I move them to his office, so I cleared out a drawer in the kitchen, and if something sits on the counter for a couple days it gets moved into the drawer. Out of my sight, but he can find it if he wants it.
DH handles most of the paperwork, but I used to have piles of paper of things I’ve printed off for future reference. I have binders for recipes, school stuff, and mothering/homemaking, but I tended to let papers pile up and not put them into their binders. Also sometimes I have receipts, mail, coupons, etc that I want to save and had no place for those. I ended up buying a small decorative upright mail sorter that I put on the counter, and started putting the various pieces of paper into that so that it was at least uncluttered until I got around to sorting it. It’s something like this http://www.amazon.com/Design-Ideas-Brocade-Letter-Holder/dp/B003VRPVE4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1410179687&sr=8-5&keywords=mail+sorter
@jkkyker, I totally understand the grandchildren conundrum with a tiny house! We’ve thought about that too. For us, it’s one of those “we’ll cross that bridge when we get there” kind of things. My husband and I had children very early in life, so we will be just shy of 40 when they’re finished with homeschooling and will be 18 and 19. I was married by 19 and had my first child at 20, so I recognize that this may also happen with our children and we may be grandparents at 40-41–which is completely fine! Hubby and I also want to have some time for just us when the children grow up too. We love the idea of a tiny house, but of course, we love our family and our children more. I think we will pursue living in a tiny home eventually, but there’s nothing stopping us from upsizing if and when the time comes to have large family gatherings or grandchildren over to stay the night.
I don’t like to plan on the “what-ifs” years in advance. I think it’s ok to do something for a season, knowing nothing is permanent. Dh and I also dream of living in a downtown loft one day too….we have a lot of dreams! Ha! I like to think that God is good, and He will provide for whatever season of life in which we find ourselves–whether that’s just the two of us in a tiny home, or in a skyrise loft apartment, or in a modest-size home on acreage with cows and chickens. All of those scenarios are desires we have at some point!
Off topic, but I cannot believe you (Lindsey) will be just shy of 40 when your children finish their homeschooling years!! I am just shy of 40 and we’re still near the beginning! I feel old.
I was married at 19 1/2, and my first child was born 3 months before my 21st birthday. (No, I wasn’t pregnant when I got married! LOL) I got pregnant again 8 months later, and she was born just after my 22nd birthday. So, I’ll be almost 39 when child #1 is 18 and barely 40 when child #2 is 18. Of course, they are welcome to live with us until they are married, and we don’t push college and moving out at 18. But by that time, they should be able to have jobs and take care of themselves so Hubby and I can have a bit of fun without them!
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