Boasting In My Weakness

30 Days are up! Today is the day that my before and after pictures are due to be posted and linked here.

I have to say that this challenge was definitely not easy, as I predicted!  My major challenges were:

1. Our house is for sale, so everytime I pulled out the files to work on them, I had to put them away, out of sight, and then pull them out again, so on, and so forth. 
2. I had no existing files in my filing cabinet, only mounds of paper work thrown in there.  I also had boxes overflowing with paperwork that were in no type of order whatsoever, just thrown in a box.  So I had to sort through every single piece of paper and shred what needed to be shred, and file what needed to be filed.
3. This is about 10 years worth of paperwork (6.5 years of marriage/family and the rest from before marriage).
4. My husband wanted me to keep almost everything (even though I wanted to throw away a lot more!!)

My Plan of Action – and how it was carried out:

1. I started by sorting through all of the paperwork, dividing what to keep/file, and what to shred.  I also wrote a list while doing this of what file folders names I would need. 
2. Then I labeled all of the files I would need, and put them where I wanted them in the cabinet.
3. Next I began sorting through the paper work, grabbing large stacks of paper, and sorting it into piles according to what folder it would go into.  Once I finished that stack, I would put the sorted piles where they go in the cabinet, grab a new stack of papers and do it all over again, until every paper was in it’s place!
4. I only kept store receipts for 2006, and put them in large envelopes, labeled 2006 receipts.  From now on, starting in 2007, my new receipt storing method will be an accordian file.  I have purchased a 12-pocket accordian file – one pocket for each month.  In it I will file away debit/credit card store receipts organized by month.  That way, if we need a receipt for any reason (return/exchange or other), we can easily find it by looking in the month it was purchased.  I will keep two years at a time.  So I will start with 2007, then use another accordian file for 2008, then when 2009 roles around, I will empty the 2007 receipts and start storing the 2009 receipts in there, and so on.
5. All of my stuff I need to shred, we are going to take to a community shred day in January.  It will be so much faster than having to do it myself, and they recycle all of that paper!

I think we will also need to purchase another file cabinet soon, because the one we have is now very full!!  That is something we will need to consider budgeting for soon!

Ok, drum roll please…….here are the before and after pictures! (Also please note: the reason my pictures are not the best is because I am trying to make sure there is no personal info showing, so I tried to be as modest as possible with how I shot the photo.)

BEFORE:

My boxes of overflowing papers to be filed

My file cabinet with papers thrown in it

DURING:

Here is a picture during a time when I had everything pulled out – working on organizing it.

And here it is now…

AFTER:

Here are my empty boxes which are now in the trash and my two traxh bags full of stuff to shred.

 I was able to get rid of two whole trash bags – yea!!!

Above:The bottom drawer of my newly organized file cabinet

Above: The top drawer of my file cabinet now.

This is a picture of the filing system I am starting for my 2007 (and beyond) receipts!

I am so glad this is all over.  I can’t express how thankful I am for this challenge, even though it was NOT at all EASY!  I am thankful that Laura provided this challenge, because it gave me just the push I needed to go for it, and get this done!  This has been bothering me and my husband for a long time, and I think I was starting to feel like it was something I would never have the time to actually do.  It just felt so overwhelming to think of tackling it.  I  really want to thank you Laura for providing this challenge, and setting it up in a way that it felt possible to accomplish!  It feels so good to have this done and over with!!!