This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. But all opinions, and my new-found organisational skills, are mine alone. So there! #CollectiveBias.
I say it every year; this is the time when I finally get organised! But then the days slide into weeks… slide into months… and before I know it December has rolled around again, and I’m just as shambolic as I ever was.
This time it’s different. No, really, I’m serious. It’s time to whip this household into shape, and become one of those seamless mothers, for whom juggling home, career and family is as easy and natural as breathing.
I know exactly which straw broke the camel’s back – it was a few weekends back as I waded, one by one, through a mountain of tatty, faded receipts, trying to sort out my tax return. The job was so stressful I’d put it off for eight whole months, a sick lurch of dread in my stomach every time I thought about it. I struck me then if I’d just been a teensy bit more organised on a day-to-day level, I wouldn’t now be faced with this gargantuan task.
Allow me to explain… below was the state of the receipts I’d gathered for the 2104/15 tax year. I’d basically just shoved them in a folder, where I planned – like every year before this one – to ignore them until approximately one week before the Jan 31 deadline. Then I would rush about like a half-crazed loon trying to count them all up, and sort them all out.
Not this year. Because the other day I took a wander down the STAPLES, where I purchased the items that were going to revolutionise my life. The store was big and airy, and seemed to have a huge range – all the office and stationery products you could possibly need, from notepads and pen holders, to office chairs and laptops.
In the first aisle I grabbed some dividers to keep all my receipts safe, tidy and itemised into different categories (less sorting out, come tax return day!). Then I picked up some envelope folders to store all the paperwork from my previous returns for the past seven years, both for my reference and in case of the dreaded tax audit *shudders*.
Finally, a new 2014/15 Filofax refill. See? Organised.
Then it was home to deal with my jumble of paperwork. Surprisingly, it didn’t actually take that long to go through and sort all the receipts into different categories, all ready to tot up after this tax year. Then I dug out all my paperwork from previous years, putting each tax year into a different folder.
Then I started filling all the important dates into my new diary. Usually it takes me until May before I get round to replacing the outdated calendar, by which point I barely know what month it is, let alone the date. Now I can see at a glance what I have on that day, and during the week ahead.
Two hours later, and my new organised life was ready and waiting. And it felt amazing! Below is how it looked before, and after…
So… what do you think? What would you like to get organised in your home?
ooh check you out Mrs Organised! I certainly need to take a leaf out of your book when it comes to filing receipts!