More and more, less paper is entering into our homes. Going green has lightened up paper piles and the overwhelm load for most people. I do find there are still a few envelopes and ‘in action’ items that tend to shuffle around the house or office even in the most organized of paperless homes.

The problem I find with even clearly defined folders like to ‘Sort’, to ‘Read’ or ‘Honey do’ is that anxiety builds at not knowing what is in the folder, or what is on the shelf. The unknown can be challenging for even the well sorted type personality. I have created a four folder system to take the nebulous out of tracking our paper. These folders come with the ability to use post its to clearly mark what is going inside. Taking 5 seconds to update what is in the ‘What’s Next’ folder can bring a sense of peace and order to one’s psyche, knowing that when the time is available to work on the project, you will know right where you left it.

The 4 folders are:

What’s New
Mail unopened
What’s Next
Mail opened with an action step
What’s Up
Mail opened that needs a decision
What’s Left
Mail opened/completed that needs filing

This is in the beginning stages of use so it is a work in progress:) For now I am using clear plastic folders to mount on the wall. I notice with clients, that wall file systems stay more orderly and attended to then desk file organizers so I am starting here. Stay tuned though because I have a feeling the concept will stay the same but the wall application won’t.

Last weekend I had a Do-it-Yourself day with a client. She is an avid knitter and mentioned wanting to get her plethora of yarn balls into some sort of an organized storage system. After doing some research online, I found this great article by Tito Santana. This wall yarn or cake organizer was just what my client had in mind. It took about 4 hours of labor and an hour of gathering up materials, but well worth it. We chose to do one twice as wide as Tito’s, to accommodate the wall size we were working with. It turned out awesome and it was pretty easy to assemble.

I have been thinking about other uses for this cool nuts and bolts wall and how I could use it in my own home. That is how much fun it was to create. Here were 3 other ways to utilize its functionality.

Ribbon

Baubles and Beads-By replacing the bolts with a magnetic circle you could attach baby jars filled with jewelry making materials

Spices-Using the same principle as the baubles and beads.

Stay tuned down the road…I am going to make one for my spices:)