My filing system or What I do when I'm bored (yes, mothers of 3 can get bored)

I have a secret.

I love organizing.

There. I said it. It's out.

I've tried for several years now to "hide" this dirty little secret. Why, you ask? Well, it's sort of like being a straight A student when it's only cool to get C's. Yes, it's juvenile. I hid it because it made me look to my friends like I had it "all together" (HA! soooooooooooooooo not true). One of them would even be so cruel as to tease me about it, but I forgave Kimberly. The fact that I LIKE to organize doesn't mean I'm either a) good at it or b) able to stick with one way of organizing for more than 3.5 seconds.

It's really a hobby. Sometimes it gets neglected (like after having our third child 2.5 years ago) , but I think it's sort of therapeutic for me. I like the challenge of trying to figure out how to neatly stuff 1,489 pieces of unnecessary necessities into a junk drawer, how many different ways I can organize our school schedule, or how to keep my school closet from turning into an impending avalanche ready to bury my children underneath it's careening contents when they open the doors.

It's fun for me to be organized. It's not a skill, talent or unique gift. I think I like it because it makes me feel creative, in control, able to do something useful, and gives me something nice to look at afterwards. Like knitting or oil painting or large bridge design does for normal people.

Which is really just to say that if it didn't feed my selfish need for enjoyment, we'd be living in complete chaos around here.

So, now that you know my secretive and selfish need to organize, here's my most recent project.



My very favorite organizing blog, By Sun and Candlelight, gave inspiration to the folders in front. You can read about her system here. The year is organized in 6 hanging files (2 months for each one). In Dawn's system (isn't it funny she and I share the same name and love of organization and Mary Engelbreit and nature and sunlight and hot chocolate? She also lives in the country where it snows, but I'll try not to be bitter about that), she breaks down her system by weeks within the files. Since I use a household folder to keep organized on a daily and weekly basis, I didn't need to do that. My main use for the system is to put reminders and papers and essentially anything that seems to be useful for that particular month within it's folder. In other words, I love the concept, but I really am not sure how it's going to work for me. It was just fun to put together.

The files and folders behind the yearly ones are essentially the ones I had already, but I went through, purged stuff, added new folders, threw out old ones and basically spiffied it up.

My next project is our monster filing cabinet hidden in the corner of our bedroom closet. That one is going to take a LOT of work. I've neglected it for years so long because I rarely use it.

Don't even ask me about my photo organization. I have no photo organization. I get hives thinking about it. Photo organization is for those who are truly organized, not oddities like me who "like" to organize whenever the mood strikes.

I have to go make my kids breakfast before they raid the pantry (which, by the way, I recently organized too).

Enjoy your day!