Paper tends to mess a place up. We had our paperwork spread out in different locations around our house and decided to do something about it a few years ago. We have a very small house. It's only 82 square meters plus basement (882 square feet somebody translated it to) so there's no room for a home office in a room of it's own.
We built a unit smack in the hallway. It's basically the first thing you see when you enter our house so I knew it had to be pretty or I couldn't live with it.
I posted the three first photos below on Flickr and judging by the number of faves they got our little unit is a success :).
This was the first version to hit Flick'r in December and so far it's my most faved photo there with a whopping 145 faves!
The pink version was only a very brief one. We're not pink people. A lot of you like it tough, It was faved 68 times.
This is basically how it looks now, with a few minor changes. 93 Flickr faves and I guess our fave too. On the desk is where I keep the laptop and it's where I'm writing this.
Here are some close up's so you can see what's inside and what goes where.
I divided one of the cubbies into four slots. We have one each and there's one for bills to be paid. When I get mail I immediately sort it. Throw all junk mail in a trash can (which you can see in the pink photo) which I empty into a recycling bin evey week. I then put the bills in the bill slot and and any magazines or catalogs in a reading pile by the sofa in the livingroom. All other paper bits or mail laying about go in our individual slots.
Again almost all white storage. To me it just looks the best and doesn't draw attention to itself in other ways than looking neat and tidy.
I got these two divider thingys at a fleamarket and they are both a nice aqua color and extremly useful. As you can see they're holding and hiding a multitude of not so pretty office supplies.
I wasn't sure I'd show you these... As bloggers were starting to blog my photos and as I was getting requests for house tours I printed them out... There are now two files... I feel a little embarrassed but it's a good ego boost if I ever doubt myself.
I have three boxes for hanging files. I use one for user manuals and warranties. There's one file for all things related to our bikes, one for cameras, one for the TVs, one for kitchen appliances and so on.
The other two are for bills, taxrelated thing, insurance papers etc There's one file on the cats, their vet bills, shots and insurances. One regarding the boat, one with my air mile statements and one each for Martin and me with pay slips. Basically anything we want easily found has a hanging file.
Inside of the hanging files I divide the papers into plastic files. For example each insurance company has a file within the "insurances" hanging file.
These files are for personal papers like certificates, grade reports, documents etc. There's also one for papers related to the house and one with the camera manual which I want easily accessible as I'm still learning.
At the bottom of the unit I have some magazine files where I keep large envelopes, plactic files, colored papers, stationary and local maps.
It takes a little effort to get all the papers organized in the first place but once you've done it it feels sooooooooo good and works really well.
You can do it too!!
