when nerds get organised

Hidden inside my computer is proof that it is actually possible for me to be organised. It was born out of necessity. Clients aren't happy if you can't update and reprint their brochure because you "can't find the original files". So, I have a system. A glorious system of naming and storing computer files and folders so that I always know where things are. And the nerd inside me always feels such accomplishment and satisfaction when I neatly "package" a completed job. If and when I go back to look at that job I can see the original InDesign file, the fonts, the linked images, the working files and the invoice.
So neat and orderly!

This is where the name for my blog sprang from. I really wish real life files and other objects could be dealt with as easily as the computer kind. Command+A (select all) then Comand+Delete (move to trash). All the junk is gone in an instant! If only everything was that easy.

In my bid to rid the house of clutter, I have turned to my trusty computer again. When I was told by the uber-organised Ronnie that there was a great task management program for Mac, I was excited. "This will help me be organised and keep lists without having a million single bits of paper floating around the house!" I looked up this program called 'Things' in the Apple store. The excitement quickly turned to dread when I saw that it cost 70 bucks!! I really couldn't justify that cost. A friend had mentioned that there was a cheaper and simpler version called iPronto - which is, sadly, only available for iPhones and iPads. (which is why I really need an iPhone! sigh.) And so my search continued into the realm of free task management software. A very unsatisfying place - most of it allowed you to write a list and that was it. No notes could be added. No time-frames set. hmmmm.

Anyway, I did find something eventually, called TaskPaper. It was quite simple, but allowed me to set up projects and notes with them. And it was free. This will do. I enthusiastically set up all my lists for getting sorty with categories, sub categories and notes. Sweet! Then upon startup one day, I got a rude message saying my free trial was due to end in a few days and that I had to pay to register the software!

Because I am a bit of a cheapskate and didn't want to pay $30 for a program that wasn't exactly what I needed, I went to visit ebay. And you'll never guess what I found! Things! For less than $30! I bought it and it is FABULOUS! I've got my 'life' to do's, my work to do's, my meal plans all in one place and not taking up an extra inch of space in the house!

I do delight in the one place that makes me feel like I'm on top of things.
(Except for the file named "SORT" on my desktop. We don't need to look in there.)

one step forward, two steps back

Unfortunately, this title is not a reference to dancing. It is a reference to my attempts at being tidy. Tidiness is something that I struggle with anyway, but add some other factors into the mix and it feels that all this 'organisation' business is just impossible!

Firstly, living with someone who is equally as messy makes things difficult. It can mean two times the mess and it can mean it is harder to find things, because you weren't the one that put it away, so who knows where it could be? Where we choose to put things always makes sense to us, but will usually remain a mystery for the other person involved.

For example, I have noticed that there always seems to be an outfit in a mound near our front door. I cannot figure out why this seems like the best place to put these clothes, but there they are. So I move this mound into our bedroom where gradually another mound is added and then another... it then becomes at least a half-hour job to sort through the mounds of clothes and put them away or, if they fail the sniff test, into the dirty clothes basket.

Likewise, I am sure my husband is stumped when it comes to where I leave some things. We lost our one and only cooking turner. For weeks we could not find the stupid thing. We improvised of course, but flipping pancakes with something spoon-shaped is quite a challenge! Anyway, one day I got fed up and went out to buy another one (actually I got two, in case we misplaced one). That same night I went to use our stick blender, so I pulled the box down from the top of the tallest cupboard, and the turner fell out onto my head! I am sure it was me who put it up there, but even I couldn't tell you why that made sense. We now have three non-stick cooking turners.

Now back to what I was talking about in the first place...
My plans for being tidy are also thwarted by my dear children. I now have two active boys that follow me around the house pulling things off the shelf I had just 'restocked', or spilling their food onto the floor I just vacuumed, or asking to play with that train set that they just saw me packing away.

In the end, it is this that brings it all into perspective. I am not going to be a kill joy when it comes to the children playing and having fun and making a mess, and I am certainly not striving to have a 'display home', but I just really want to create a more orderly space (especially behind the scenes) where things are kept in places that can be located and make sense. I am hoping that this will then flow into life in general and I can keep a better track of day to day things.  I feel like I could be a better wife and mum if these things are more in control. (I'll certainly feel less stressed if I can find my keys when I'm ready to walk out the door.)

And, when it comes down to it, I will pick reading a book to my children over stacking the dishwasher any day.

the uprising of the socks

I hate socks. I know hate is a strong word, but I do. I hate them. I hate wearing them, I hate that they end up in every room of the house, I hate pegging them on the clothes line and I hate hate hate folding them to be put away.

Every day (or two, or three) I go through the house gathering up the socks to be added to the wash. I need to check inside all the shoes too because the socks like to hide there. Then into the washing machine and onto the clothes line... then in a few days, when I need space to hang out the next load, I put them into a basket and they are moved into our bedroom. After another few days (or several) I finally attempt to put the clothes away. This is when I discover that all except one pair of socks have lost their partner! How did this happen? Where could they have gone? Do they have a personal vendetta against me? It is a profound mystery. And, it is darn annoying.

I will usually leave the odd socks out on the bed with the aim of finding their pair but, inevitably, it becomes time to get into bed so they get shoved into the sock draw as they are.

This is the actual pair of socks my husband
chose to wear to work this morning!

There was a time a while ago when I noticed my husband's socks were never matching after being washed. Not even the usual one or two complete pairs were being spat out. What was going on? Then, all was revealed. I witnessed him putting his shoes on for work one morning, and I saw that he was just wearing odd socks to begin with! So he just grabbed the first two socks that touched his hand. Green with blue. Blue with black. Black with playing cards (?). He had become sick of the fruitless searching inside the mess of his sock draw. It seemed no sock had a pair.

So, my solution was to buy more socks. You may be surpried to know that this didn't solve the problem. It made it worse. And so the saga continues...

I hate socks.

Does anyone have any advice?
How can we improve this desperate situation??

piles

My husband had some things to do on the computer last night, so I took the opportunity to start organising the rogue files. All combined, they made one enormous pile! I then spent close to two hours sorting through it all. I ended up with three (and a half) piles. Things to chuck, things to file and things to keep elsewhere. Thankfully, the 'chuck' pile was the tallest. It made me feel fabulous to see how much paper was going to leave our house!

The 'file' pile was a decent size, but at least it had a definite destination. Actually, I should say 'has' a destination, because it hasn't actually made it into the filing cabinet yet. It is currently residing in previous storage area number three beneath the filing cabinet. Sigh. But it is NOT going to stay there. I have given myself til Thursday night to complete this filing. Just need to ease into this whole being organised thing.

The 'keep elsewhere' pile ended up being separated again into another eight piles. Each pile was going to a different place in the house. And, thankfully I decided on more things that I could throw out, so one of the piles was heading towards the recycling bin. More things leaving the house that I didn't have to think about!

Oh yes, I almost forgot about the 'half' pile. This one formed itself after I realised there were a couple of bills that had to be dealt with immediately (glad I found these!) and I also found a few things that I wanted to chuck but needed permission.

As of Thursday night we will have a total of TWO filing areas. The filing folder for incoming mail which will be sorted through at the end of each week (hopefully) and the filing cabinet. And...  no more piles!!

Phew! I rewarded myself with two rows of chocolate
for a job well done.

when your filing cabinet lives in the laundry...

Yep. Our filing cabinet is in the laundry. Sometimes the decision about where to place certain items of furniture is taken out of your hands when there is not a lot of available space. Our filing cabinet happened to fit pretty well in the laundry. The bottom two drawers contain files. The top drawer contains laundry powder, napisan, wool wash, a lint brush, enjo floor fibres, a delicates bag...
you get the idea.

The filing part of our filing cabinet is quite orderly. There are labelled tabs on suspended files - and some even have labelled sub categories within them! Great! It seems I am on top of things here.
Except for two things...
a) the named tabs I set up were relevant three years ago - so any extra categories that have cropped up are either merged with other (almost) related things, or just shoved into unmarked files at the back.
b) there are numerous important documents that are yet to make it into the filing cabinet.

The documents that fall into the second category could be in any of ten other places around the house. Yes you read that right... in total, we have ELEVEN different places around the house where we 'file' things! I shocked even myself when I counted them all. Lets explore this further. I'll take you through it in list form...

The places where we 'file' our important documents:

1. the filing cabinet
2. a green expandable file - this sits near the filing cabinet, but in the five and a half years
   we have been married I have not managed to merge or purge these documents
3. the floor beneath the filing cabinet
4. the dining room table
5. near my computer - mostly bills that I have already paid online
6. side of the fridge - immunisation information, doctor referrals, take away menus, childrens' artworks and more
7. kitchen bench
8. corner shelf in the kitchen - I found a few sneaky letters and prescriptions behind the
   tissue box
9. bookshelf in hallway - things are squeezed in between books that should be filed away
10. bookshelf in lounge room - more things just shoved there, most likely moved from the dining table in order to clear space for dinner
11. sideboard near the front door - as well as unopened credit card statements, there are gift certificates, keys, a promo sized sorbelene cream, cuff bracelet, broken earrings, loose change, pencils, a piece off a scooter, ribbons, glue stick, goggles, a bendy man, a farmer made at playtime and a drum stick holder engraved with the words "Happy 21st Lincoln" (no one in our family plays the drums or has the name Lincoln) and I'm too lazy to keep going. There are too many things here.

As you can see, I have a fair bit of work ahead of me. So, first, I have planned to gather all of the loose documents into one place in order to sort through them. I will make piles: to chuck, to file in filing cabinet, to keep elsewhere (if there is anything sentimental). I will also update my file names and add more where needed. Also, I am going to purchase a 5-tab file from kikki.K to organise the incoming snail mail as soon as it comes through the door (thanks for the tip, Ronnie!). I will tell you more about this later.

Question: How many filing places do you have?

why I need to get organised

Some days it is hard to find a clear path
through the house to walk on.

Hours of my life are wasted looking for things. I am often late to places because I can't find my house keys / sunglasses / the boys' hats / you name it. "Oh, of course the keys are on the bathroom sink. That is a perfectly logical place for them." I am being driven crazy by my own lack of anything even remotely resembling organisation.
So, when I saw that a friend was hosting a "Get Sorty" party - I was in. I saw this as my chance to get help - to make a change. I needed someone to point me in the right direction - to give me practical ideas. So much excitement was felt at the thought of hearing someone talk about how they organise their wardrobe. My situation must be bad.
A couple of nights ago, I sat with 21 other women at the first ever Get Sorty event. We listened to Ronnie - the epitomy of organisation. A lot of us were in awe, and terrified, at the same time. "Will I, too, have to compartmentalise my sock draw to be organised??"
Enter this blog. I want to share my journey towards organisation. Towards getting 'sorty'. I want to share my thoughts and my process along the way. (Assuming I come up with a process!) Show before and after photos. (Which is actually possible now since I found my camera after looking for it for two weeks). Possibly offer items that we don't need or have never used but are too good to just throw out. To share tales of woe with other disorganised souls. To get advice from people with more experience.
My hope is that this blog will show that if I can 'get sorty', then anyone can!