Comcast is Going Paperless

Yesterday I got an email from Comcast about their new initiative to get rid of paper bills. Although I commend them to finally get on board with going paperless, what took them so long? I have been paperless with my Verizon and electric bill for over two years. I think you should definitely sign up to go paperless to eliminate paper clutter and of course to help reduce our paper usage. Check out Comcast's website to sign up to go paperless. Yeah, Comcast!

Time Management

Check out this speech by Randy Pausch. It is informative and inspiring.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758

Gain Wardrobe Control

If your like most people, your closet is overflowing with work attire, casual clothes, shoes, handbags, belts, and other wardrobe accessories. Every time you open your closet door you think to yourself, "I really need to get this closet organized". The best way to clean your closet is with the turn of the seasons. As the hot summer nights turn to crisp evenings, this is natures subtle hint that you need to spend one Saturday morning reviewing your upcoming wardrobe.

Make a goal for yourself to spend two hours on a rainy Saturday morning to look at all your work clothes. Inspect all the pieces for fabric pulls, stains, and missing buttons. Immediately put these in a donate pile. If an item is really not worth giving to charity, then consider using the item as a dusting rag in your house or simply throw the item away. FYI...Old t-shirts are perfect for dusting rags. Don't forget to try the items on to make sure they still fit and that you still like them.

Once you have eliminated the obvious give aways, start mixing and matching pants/skirts with shirts and suit jackets. Can you make multiple outfits out of your items? Are there any items that simply don't coordinate with any other clothing items? Give these a good look...will you honestly wear them? Do you need the item? Can someone else benefit from the item? Perhaps it's a pretty orange color, but it doesn't quite go with your wardrobe and it might be a little bright for your conservative corporate office. Consider giving it to a friend who looks great in orange and can really pull the color off.

After you have finished with your work clothes, take a break and enjoy the rest of your Saturday. Make a goal to review your casual clothing and your accessories in the next week. Follow the same steps as above and you should have enough room to fit everything in your closet and find room for next season's new fashion trends.

Magazine Clutter

Every day it seems I get a new magazine or catalog in the mail. From my husband’s Economist, Business Week, Bon Appétit, and National Geographic to my Health magazine, we have lots of reading material lying around. These are items we have ordered, but we also get Alumni magazines, store catalogs, and local newspapers. I keep all my magazines in two places…in a large square basket in the living room and in a basket in the bathroom.
After looking through the mail, I place the magazines in the large square basket in the living room. I can usually go through catalogs that evening while lounging on the couch and watching TV. Or sometimes I quickly flip through them after I sort and file my mail. One of the things I noticed lately is that most of these catalogs contain the same product information as the catalog before. I am not seeing anything new. If you feel overwhelmed with catalogs, then you can call the company and ask to be removed from the mailing list. I did this for my Frontgate catalog. I never bought anything from them, but all of a sudden I started getting the catalog. I love when my information gets sold!!!
I leave the magazines in the basket until it starts to get full. Usually at this point my husband and I will go through the magazines to recycle the ones we have already read. Sometimes I bring them to work and leave them in the kitchen for others to read during lunch. If you do this, make sure you take off the address sticker or black out your address with a marker.
Another place you can store magazines is next to your bed in a basket or on the night stand. If you do this, remember to clean it out on a regular basis to avoid it from overflowing onto the floor.
How do I determine what magazines can go and stay? Usually if it’s been sitting in one of my baskets for over a month then I recycle it. If I am keeping the magazine for one specific article, I will cut out the article and place it next to my night stand. I will add this article to my To Do list for the week. We tend to keep our cooking magazines for the recipes. In this case, cut the recipe out of the magazine. I keep binders with various recipes (Entrée, Dessert, Sides, etc). I can then hole punch the recipe and add to my binder and then get rid of the magazine. Another thing to consider is that certain magazines allow you to log on to a website to review the same article/recipe/tips as in the magazine. You can make a note to go to the website instead of keeping the magazine. Just remember if you haven’t looked at the magazine in the last couple of months, it’s probably time to let it go.

Story of Stuff

Check this out:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Eliminating Stuff

Check out this article from Time magazine.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html

Starting a File System

You've thought about it for awhile now. You've seen the advertisements for filing cabinets and varying organizing gizmos. The only thing holding you back is knowing you have to sort through all your paperwork.
"Where should I begin?" you ask yourself. The way I figured out logical categories for my filing cabinet was by looking at the bills I pay every month. Here is a sample of items I pay every month:
Cable
Car Payment
Rent
Water
Electric
Student Loans
Gym membership
Phone
Savings
You may have some of these same bills every month or you may have something slightly different. Just looking at this list, you can see that there is paper associated with each item. This is the beginning of your file system.
Notice I made my list generic. I actually pay my bill to Comcast, but my file is called "Cable". The reason for this is because if I move and my service provider changes to Cox Communication, then I don't need to change my file name.
Take a piece of paper and write down all the bills you pay. Don't worry about getting fancy file folders yet. You can do that once you have a file framework. Instead use any folder you have available like a manila folder and put the name on the folder.
If you have papers lying on your desk, pick each item up and slip the paper into the corresponding folder. You may have serveral cable or electric bills on your desk and it's now just a matter of putting them in the folder.
Spend time going through each paper. Okay, you are probably asking yourself "I have all these random papers that have nothing to do with the categories I wrote on my notepad, now what?"
Take a quick look at each paper (less than 30 seconds) and decide if you should toss/recycle/shred or if it deserves another category. You may have picked up an Explanation of Benefit(EOB) statement that your health insurance provider sent you from your recent blood text. Don't worry about reading the content and taking action just yet, but decide on a category like Medical.
Continue to do this with each paper until you start to see similar patterns where similar papers belong with other papers. Remember to pile these papers together and write down the categories on your notepad.
This whole process can take hours or days. You can have tons of paper. Whatever you do, don't get discouraged. If you come to a piece of paper where you are unsure what to do, toss it into an "Unsure" pile and make sure to LABEL IT!
Once your filing framework begins to take shape, you can move the folders to a filing cabinet or shelf while you shop for the perfect storage solution for your filing solution. You will have all your categories written on your notepad so when you go to the office supply store, you will know how many file folders you need and the approximate size of the storage unit needed.
This is a fresh start to your new organized life!