Documents Documents everywhere!!!! One accumulates all kinds of documents all through his/her life , sometimes school related stuff, office related docs or house/taxes/insurance documents. Enter our home, and you would find bills lying on the dining table. Insurance docs – you would find them in three different files. Tax documents – Again number of files. If we buy something for home, the warranty and manuals were put at different locations. Every time we had to go to Dr. for getting our daughter vaccinated, we would frantically look for her vaccination card. I can go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
One fine Sunday, I was lazying around, my hubby came and started searching for gas bill to use it as address proof for voter’s card. He literally went through seven files but did not find any. I spotted a green paper lying in the upper shelf, and said, check there, and lo, that was it… I don’t know what entered my head… But I started recalling all the amazing file cabinets that I had seen in the blogging world and fancied making them adapted to my needs.
But alas!!! Those solutions were just not for our household. Number one reason : There was no way to accommodate a filing cabinet in our house. I did not want to add new furniture just for the paperwork. But I really wanted to have all my documents in one place and all categorized. And then, the light bulb lit in my head!!!
This is the after picture only. Sorry, being a newbie blogger, I forgot to click the before picture.
The picture above is of the wall unit in our bedroom. This is actually for the TV unit but we don’t want TV in our bedroom. So, this piece was just empty. And accumulating docs and multiple files and just random stuff. Sometime back, I had stored a carton of jars thinking that I will put it to a great use. And now, I found the great use. I made that into a document storage container. Move aside the hanging file folders which I had fancied for over a year to use for document storage, I finally made peace with the fact that that solution is not for me. Instead, I found that these files and folders are what I need. I pulled out all the folders (hidden and displayed), and one by one, I started going through each folder. I took out each document, decided whether it was to be purged or kept, categorized and went on to another document and folder. It took me sometime, but really this task was overdue since long. Finally, after about 2 hours, I had each document sorted and kept in like piles.
Here are the IN PROGRESS pics:
All of it had finally come down to eight broad level categories, and within them, there were about 36 sub-categories. I rushed to the stationery shop and bought these…
Then labeled them with washi tape. And inserted the documents and put all the folders in this box. It was functioning, but I wanted it to be pretty as well. I had one plastic cover (normally used as shelf liner) lying at hand, which I bought just because I loved it. I covered the box with that and I got this beauty.
Now, I had made it but I wanted it to be functional for my hubby as well. I took the document box to him and handed him a paper. I asked him to file it properly by identifying on his own. I wanted to evaluate the obviousness and ease of this system. And I was elated to see that he had no trouble finding the right folder and right file and he was able to file the paper correctly. Happy Organizing dance!!!!
Once more – This is the pile of folders that I started with .. and endless documents lying all over the house.
And this is the end result
Love it. And this system has been functioning well for over 2 months now. I love the sight and the function it offers. Has it ever happened with you that you were drooling over some solution for a long time but finally made something else for youself and loved it even more? I would love to know about it!!!!
Love this solution!!
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