organization and chaos

let me preface this by saying, this is in no way a New Year's resolution. i don't believe in them. you either do something or you don't. you stick with it or you don't. there's nothing magical about Jan 1. so my timing is simply a coincidence.

i am obsessed with design blogs. i subscribe to about 15 of them. for me, it's fun to look at what i will never achieve....style! not to mention, in many posts, organization. but i have reached my fill point on several things recently, clutter being one of them. i've said before that living on/in the river is a bit of a blessing. we are often forced to purge the garage at least once a year in preparation for a flood. unlike many people i know, i appreciate this. i need this. what i need now, is a flood INSIDE my home.

we have the typical clutter corners. the drawer of thingamajigs. a box of doodads. a closet of whatsithoosits. and i am just as guilty as nacho. so here's my task, NOT resolution. we are going to take one are/space each month and tackle it. that means getting rid of and getting somewhat organized.

i picked an easy one for Jan. we both have the old school, metal lockers and it's easy to toss stuff in there and forget it. so out go all the stupid receipts, 8 tubes of almost empty chap stick, coupons i will NEVER use, and general memorabilia clutter. my god, i can't remember what i had for breakfast this morning, i really don't think that lift ticket is gonna do much for a trip 3 years ago. this will be followed by like areas such as the Drawer of Emotional Attachment Items, and the Box of I Will Need This Nob One Day, or What if I Buy a VCR that Matches that Remote One Day? see where i'm headed. God help me when i get to the gardening/outside stuff!

the big scary item? THE OFFICE! like so many people, we are plagued by paper. i work in an environment that is pushing paperless. i like my paper. i'm a touch it feel it kinda girl. yeah, you bet! but this has to stop. so even though our office is not slated until Feb, i've taken steps this week to go paperless on things we can (bills, statements, etc.). but that's just one horn on our rhinoceros! there's photos and stupid "i was gonna put that in an album" crap all over the place. i know, hard to picture me scrap booking. my friend Julie is a therapist and even she gave up on "treating" me when trying to figure out how to get me moving on either booking it or pitching it. she won't even refer me now. so Feb should be interesting.

i welcome any ideas, sites, references that anyone has about getting an area like an office organized. and i don't mean buy some pretty boxes. we are so far beyond that. we are currently having the Great Scanning Debate of 2010! what things do you really need to keep your own copies of (scanned or otherwise) and what is just pure habit? so it's that kind of direction i'm looking for...how to GET RID of stuff cuz i can buy the pretty boxes myself!

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