sometimes I pretend I am an adult

Sometimes, just to keep people who actually know me guessing, I like to pretend I am a responsible adult.  No seriously, I do.  It can't last terribly long, its a lot like holding your breath in that it gives you that awful panicky I-might-die-here-now feeling.  Sorta like the panic you get when you are falling asleep and suddenly, just as you drift pass reason you are certain you are falling down the pit of doom?  Its like that for me.  Adulthood is soooo over rated, my friends.

Anyway, just for giggles, I fake it sometimes.  Like when I need a reason to blog.  

So somewhere ... I honestly am not sure where ... I got this totally mature idea that you could color code your home files and be all efficient and stuff.  I had done this as a teacher (math lesson plans were filed as one color, language arts plans another, for example) but like so many of my brilliant teachy ideas they did not translate to home.  Like at all.  My classroom was uber organized, and cleaned out, and I was the picture of efficiency.  Home?  Well ... are you new here?

Anyway, I saw this idea where you could use the sticky return address labels and color code files to make your life ever so much easier somewhere.  I wish I could remember to link you to the original place.  

Dreading actually doing this one, knowing that I'd love the end result, but hate the poo out of the process, I bit the bullet.

Here is one example of a before image ...

Ghastly, I know.  To be honest, the whole four drawers of our adulthood looked just as horrible.  Papers sticking out at odd angles like they were trying to escape the hell resulting from a lack of a filing cabinet system.  Important papers were all bent up and lost, hidden behind warranties for 10 year old purchases long since Goodwilled. *shudder*

So I put on my big girl panties, borrowed my parents paper shredder and dove in.  Once files were cleaned out I created my color coding categories (ie green is financial) and got labeling.

I love not having to try to coax those stupid little tabs out of the plastic holders, the stickers are about a billion times easier to cope with and can be changed easily too.

The file cabinet overhaul made it so we can actually use our files a lot easier, and we wound up getting rid of tons of stuff we didn't need and had no idea we were still holding on to.

I have also been working on a "life binder" which I also found on Pintercrack.  Its a handy idea, keeping things all in one immediately accessible place.  It is still a bit of a work in progress, but I will share it with you when I am done too.

All this organizing stuff makes me feel so mature ... but then I remember who I am, so its okay.