Paper Pile Giveaway

Congrats to the winner of Lysa TerKeurst’s book Made to Crave. She is: Kristina; timestamp 11:51 pm on January 5th. Send your home address to me at [email protected] right away!

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Paper.

It piles.

It perturbs.

It is a problem!

Is there any aspect of trying to maintain a clean home that is more unnerving??

Sure the kitchen may get messy.

So what!!

We can always clean it up again, wiping and scrubbing until the counter is clean, the dishes are done and the pots and pans back in their rightful place.

If we want to keep it that way for a while, we need only to eat a meal or two out of have paper actually be our friend (in the form of  plates on which to dine!!)

But with paper it is a whole different ballgame.

While we may be able to spend an afternoon sorting, purging and pitching our piles of paper leaving only the needed ones in our abode, it is only a temporary fix. No sooner have we tossed our piles into the trash (or recycle bin) than a whole new batch enters our home.

They come at us from all directions.

The newspaper arrives.

The mail gets delivered.

The kids return home from school or an extra-curricular activity.

Because we aren’t always sure what to do with this stuff, we end up placing it neatly in a pile.

Oh, come on! Do neat piles actually exist? I’m not sure I ever seen one.

Okay, maybe I’ve seen a few, but they didn’t stay neat for long. As soon as someone was in need of a paper they thought might be hiding in said pile, they rifled through it and left it a complete mess.

And what do the neat piles do to us women?

They shout, “Failure, failure, failure!! Why look at you mom! You can’t even make a decision. You don’t know where to put us so you just choose any horizontal surface within a three foot radius and plop us down.  Incompetent woman! Can’t you even take care of the paper in your home, for crying out loud!!”

Okay, so maybe I’ve never actually had a pile talk to me like an apple tree on the way to Oz, but I have had that exact line of thought run through my brain.

Piles make me feel defeated. They remind me that I was not on top of the ballgame.

I didn’t have a plan for those papers, so there they sit, a stack of unmade decisions I put off until another time.

They are the culmination of the “for now”s in my life.

You know, “I’ll set this mail here, for now. I’ll put these papers on the counter for now. I really don’t have time to think about what to do with these clothes, shoes, toys, store items. Etc… I’ll just lay them here for now.

Gals, the phrase for now is derailing our organizational train!

Well, since January is a time for all things resolution-y, I’m sure many of you have made a goal that has to do with getting more organized around your place.

Maybe with your time.

Or with your cleaning & clutter.

Or your grocery shopping & meal planning.

Perhaps even with your paper piles!

Here’s a little giveaway to help boost your moral. It includes:

~A periwinkle (one of my favorite colors!) three-ring binder.

~A set of whimsical tab dividers for the binder.

~A sturdy vinyl folder with many inside pockets for organizing fliers & such.

~ A set of colorful push pins.

~A set of matching jumbo paper clips.

~A set of push clips for a bulletin board that hold coupons & such right where you can see them.

~A pocket 2011 calendar and matching notepad.

~Some totally fun, swirly-patterned, comfy-grip mechanical pencils. ( I always do my calendar in pencil since things may change & a I HATE a messy looking calendar!)

~An undated desk-size, week-at-a-glance planner pad to map out your days.

~Finally, a personalized copy of my book The Complete Guide to Getting & Staying Organized.

To enter the giveaway you must leave a comment on this post sometime between now & Monday morning at 7:00 am when the winner will be chosen and announced.

Either…..

Tell us what aspect of paper causes you the most trouble….

or

Give us a solution for any aspect of paper problems.

Now, if time is tight or you are simply drowning in paper at the moment and as a result your brain won’t work, simply say, “I’m in!” Drawing is random. :-)

I’ll try to hop on over the weekend and share a few of my paper tips with you too. (NOTE: I have done this in the fourth page of the comments giving directions for how to assemble a Brain in a Binder that will house your papers. Click on the comments & then scroll down to see :-))

Now…get tackling those piles girlfriends!!!!

Pile-busting Blessings,

188 Comments

  1. I have soo many piles of everything…I don’t even know where to begin nor have the energy to want to begin (something I need to pray about). So I’m in!

  2. I’ve got all the stuff for the brain a few years ago after hearing you speak at Hearts but have not put it to use. This is the year! Thanks for the reminder of how much it can help!

  3. My biggest problem is the paper clutter. I cannot seem to get a system in place that will help me avoid the clutter. I do have folders set up for the various documents I need to keep, but the papers just don’t seem to make it to the folders. Help!!

  4. My paper issues have to do with keeping a recorded track of Income Tax information…Dr, volunteer mileage, prescriptions, etc…I cannot find a method to do that…

  5. My 13 year old daughter…her room is a full of paper! From art work, to notes, to homework to posters, to magazines—and on and on! I’m not a piler so this drives me crazy! She needs a system!!!! ;)

  6. I try to sort the mail as it comes in, but there are times when I’m just not sure what to do with it and it lays on the shelf by the door for months.

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