Papers: My Organizational Death

With the new year and gift giving holidays behind us, many (me!, me!, me!) will see purging and organizing as an upcoming priority, so much in fact, it's makes its way onto many a New Year's Resolutions list.

So, no surprise, links are popularly popping up on many websites offering tidbits and hints on how we can stop clutter in its tracks.

And when I ran across the link, Organize Your Important Papers, Bills, Receipts & More, I happily clicked into what could be my cure.

I was disgusted.

That slide of pictures. Please tell me that isn't a reality for most people? If so, I'm largely failing. I mean, I wish that for you, hope your life is squeaky paper clutter clean, but really?

The link intros along the lines of, stop sliding your papers and bills from counter to counter and start organizing.

Okay, this grabs me, hook, line and sinker because my answer to paper organization is a pile - sometimes neat, sometimes not, sometimes with hairbands, happy meal toys, and a cat toy thrown into it, at the corner of my kitchen counter.  It's not cute.

The papers?

School work from the kids, bills to pay, papers that need to be filed, school calendars, uniform policy checklist, pages that were colored by my cuties just for me, notes I've scribbled on for topic ideas, a quick jot down of recipes I saw on food network, magazines I think I'll have time to one day read, Holiday cards, toy instruction manuals, field trip forms, study guides, spelling test list, sight words, grocery shopping lists, appointment reminder slips, sale papers, receipts, lunch menus, .... I could go on and on and ......you all get the idea, right?

Back to the linked organized pictures. Although a tad stuffy and seemingly unrealistic in my scatter-brained mind, it is inspirational. But what I need to hear read is testimony straight from a parent not someone paid to make a desk look like something June Cleaver graced away from- how do you keep your paper clutter down or do you even try? Which picture in the link closest resembles your paper gathering?

Do you have tips to share or a camera handy to snap your own organized paper heaven?