Reorganizing my Own Office

This is the “before” picture of my office. We have a very small office and have desk for my husband and I, file cabinets and a bookshelf. But I still needed some more space.
Think “up” is always what I tell my clients. Shelves right? But I wanted to do it on my own without having to have my husband help me and I love cubbies. I would have loved to have gone to Ikea and gotten one of their cubby units, but they are over an hour and half away. So I went to Target and got 2 of their 8 cubby units. They were on sale for $39.99 each and they worked great.
I turned my 4 drawer (2 side by side) file drawer perpendicular to the wall and moved the desk against the wall. I now have the wall to use for a large calendar and message board.
I also had a 3 drawer unit on the left of my desk. Since I moved the desk over to the wall, I put that on the right of my desk and brought the printer down so it is actually more accessible than it was up on the 5 drawer file cabinet. I know in these pictures it is hard to see the detail of what I did with the other furniture, but it did make it better and more accessible to wear I sit.
Here is the finished picture.

MooreMagnets magnetic boards by April Review and Giveaway!

I have to admit that I am totally in love with the magnetic board that April made me to review. So much so that I don’t even have it with me to do get pictures and do this review. Why you ask? Because I packed it yesterday and sent it to Blogher. I am going to use it on my table to sell my pouchees. I will use it to display the business cards of my sponsors!
I have a picture with it in it…not the greatest pic..but you can still see how cute it is!

You can get tins to put your paperclips, rubberbands etc… in to keep organized.

You can hang them or use them as a standing magnetic board with the cute wooden stand she includes (on standing models).

There are several variations as in this magnetic strips or the window pane

You can purchase this from Moore Magnets

Peter Walsh’s In Place System and Office Max Team Up – Review

Peter Walsh is a guru of organizing. You have probably seen him on the Oprah Show as her organizing consultant. He has teamed up with Office Max to bring his new organizing system to all of us. It is called “In Place System“.

I got to take part in a web cast with him a few months ago and it was great. (You can see it here yourself)
This is a office organizing system that is designed to be simple, affordable and usable.
He makes folders clear so that you can easily see what is in them. He uses specially made sticky notes so that you can change labels as you need.
There are several components and you need to see them at your local Office Max.

I was also given some really fun and colorful folders and clips to use from Office Max. It is the DiVoga line of fun accessories. I love them. I use them for my children’s files that I keep current information in. It is fun to have something different than you plan old cream color folders.
The plastic snap folders are great too. I am using one to put all my BlogHer paperwork in. I am dividing up the 3 days schedules, confirmations and party schedules into the clear folders from Peter Walsh with sticky note labels and then putting them all into the fun snap closure folder from Office Max. Great combo!
The paperclips are just so cute and fun. I use them in a clear magnetic tin that I display on my magnetic board.
Great stuff Peter Walsh and Office Max!

Office Organizing – Colors can make your office Great!

Colors are important to most of us. They can affect how you feel, how you think. You want your office to be fun to go into. Make you feel productive and happy. What colors make you feel good? What ones do you love?
If you notice in my office I have bright colors…but I didn’t paint the walls, I didn’t add expensive curtains or carpet. I got cubbies in the colors I liked and made my own “Ikea” tower with the cubby units from Target. (Love cubbies!!)
I also added pails that I found at a garage sale and the little ones from Target. I have a hot pink magnetic board on my desk (an upcoming review and giveaway by the way).
If I go into another color mode..I can change it up real easy.
But when I walk into my office it just makes me feel happy!

Office Organizing Can Be Fun! ?..well it can!

This is my office. I share it with my husband, his desk is just to the right of mine. The office is small…but I am still happy we do have it.
If you do not have an office or anywhere you can call your office but want to make one you need to consider a few things.

1) Usability/Accessibility – if it is in the back of the basement, will you actually use it? It needs to be some place you will use it.
2) Heating and cooling (if you are thinking of a basement, extra room or so forth).
3) Convenience – Does it work for you and your family?

You may consider these areas -
1) Kitchen – Is there a section of counter in the kitchen that you could call your own and set up a mini office?
2) Family room – Could you set up a mini office by your chair. (post on Thursday will show pictures of my mini office)
3) Corner of a room that you could put a small table or corner desk?

Zones
If you have an office, or an area in the family room that you do your paperwork, or a table in your bedroom….you need to make “Zones”. Zones break down the office into what you need the most and use daily (Zone A) to items you don’t use very often and can store elsewhere in the room. (Zone C)

Ok…so artist I am not! But this gives you the idea of what I am talking about.
You are in the center (of course….isn’t it always about us?…LOL, sorry..goofy mood) and the circle closest to you is your Zone A.

Zone A – Things you use daily and need close at hand. You don’t have to move to get these items.
1) In box for papers
2) Pencils/pens
3) Tape
4) Phone
5) Stapler/Scissors
6) Letter opener
7) Sticky notes
8) Paper
9) Trash can
10) Calculator
11) Computer

Zone B – Items that you may have to roll your chair around to, but are still close and accessible. You do not have to get up out of your chair.
1) File cabinet
2) Printer/copier/fax
3) Shredder

Zone C – In the office, but you have to get up and walk to.
1) Office supplies
2) Extra file cabinet – maybe files you don’t access as often
3) Book shelf with reference books.

This gives you an idea of how I break it down. But you want to be efficient when you sit down to work in your office. You don’t need to jumping up and down or you may not get anything accomplished.

More to come on Office organizing Thursday and Friday of this week. Stay tuned!

Custom Magazine holder review and Giveaway *CLOSED*

Have you ever looked at the magazine holders you can buy for your magazines and thought how plain they look? Well…no more. You can have the cutest shelves in town with Lisa’s Vintage magazine holder. She has dressed up a basic magazine holder that can hold light weight magazines or catalogs with vintage fabrics and bows.

I think it looks so cute! She has added a place for a label to be added to it also. (Love labels!!)

She has many other items she makes and sells!! So you will need to check out her site! Pale and Pink Roses

To purchase go to Pale and Pink Roses

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED

Papers…Papers….Papers!!

I did my momtv.com web cast last night on Paper Clutter. I am going to rerun the post that I did several months back, below.
Kristy asked in the comments about the family bringing in all the papers and how to handle that.
Have a “drop zone” for your mail. A basket or bin, some place that everyone in the family knows to put the mail. It may be children’s papers (see this Thursday’s post for Children’s papers)from school too. Any papers coming into the house by anyone needs to go in this designated spot. Then you need to go through all these papers using the system below.
I mentioned last night in my web cast last night that Barbara Hemphill who wrote Taming The Paper Tiger has a basically the same system, but has made it very easy to remember the categories.
She says that every paper coming into the house goes into one of these categories.
F – File
A – Action
T – Trash
This is a real easy way to remember it. It gets broken down a little more than this and I go into it, but this helps you to realize that every paper has a place.

All of us have sooooo many papers coming into our homes everyday. We have bills, magazines, coupons, advertisements, newspapers, and many more. It can get completely over whelming!!! So what do you do with all of them? What do you keep? What do you throw away???
You would think that with the Internet and e-mail that our influx of paper would be greatly reduced, but it has decreased by very little.
Figuring out a way to manage the paper is the key. We have to control the paper and not let the paper control us!! I know that sound so silly, but it can be true.
You need to work out a sorting system for any paper that comes through your door. If you know what to do with it when it comes in..then it hopefully won’t pile up.
Ok…its actually very basic.

You can do it all in 4 sorting bins.
1) Bills
2) Action
3) File
4) Pitch

The Bill bin could very well be in the Action bin, it is an action. But I like to keep them separated so that bills don’t get lost in a pile of things that may not be as important or dated. It can be easy to get behind in your bill paying, and that can cause problems with your credit..not to mention your nerves.

The Action bin is anything that needs attention. Filling out a permission slip for your childs field trip, a form to order that book that you need for a class, a form that needs to be filled out for insurance, etc.

The File bin is any paper that you need to keep (notice I said “need”) and will be filed in a hanging file of a file cabinet.

The Pitch bin should end up being your biggest pile. You do need to pay attention to what goes into the trash can. Having a shredder is important. You want to make sure that you shred anything that has any financial information on it, personal information on it or as some suggest even your name or address. With this age of someone being able to steal your identity, it’s important to be careful.

So when you bring in your mail…take a minute and stand in front of your 4 bins (stackable plastic paper trays work great…and if you have the space, you don’t need to stack them) and sort through it. Take each piece and quickly decide if its an ad and you don’t plan to ever use it…pitch it! If its a bill thats easy. You don’t have to take the time to open your bills at this point, unless you are unsure if it is or not. Take those zillions of credit card offers and put them in the pitch bin! Don’t spend too much time on it. Any ads will come back again and you can always find information on the Internet.

If you take a few minutes each day to go through your papers and sort them then you soon can have a table that looks like this