January 17: More Organization

Before Isla was born, I created a new place in our dining room for storing paper, mail, receipts and other things that used to end up piled on my desk.

Eight months later, and it's time to check in and see how this new system is working for me. Here is what the shelf looked like earlier this week:
Not too bad, but there were some problems that needed attention:
1. The red bin on the top was serving no purpose, other than collecting random junk that really didn't fit in the space.
2. The silver filing trays were filled with random papers and other junk, and none of them were organized at all.
3. Papers with no home were starting to get piled up on top of the boxes.
4. The boxes still didn't have labels on them.
5. The two white boxes on the bottom shelf were empty and serving no purpose.

Most of these problems are a result of not having an exact home for everything that I wanted to store here. So I started by pulling out all of the papers and other junk that gets piled here. Then I sorted it into categories to figure out exactly what needed a home. I reorganized the trays and boxes and the top bin. Hopefully there will now be a place to put everything that I want to put on this shelf.

I also made labels for the boxes so we know what is inside of them without having to open them up and look. I should have done that a long time ago!