Paper work

It is amazing how much paper work a household can have, we have;

• Household bills
• House general 
• Car bills
• Car general 
• Children's general 
• Children's clubs and activities
• Children's school
• Husband general
• Husband work
• Me general
• Me - freelance corporate work
• Me - children's party company work

That is a whole lot of admin. As an event organiser, (the job that everyone seems to think is really glamorous and exciting) is mainly 75% admin therefore my admin skills are pretty good but recently I have been feeling pretty over whelmed by it all and not organised enough. The huge pile in my in-tray was proof of this. So with a day to myself today as my husband had taken my children to London for the day the big admin organisation began...

I already had quite a good system going with various folders holding certain documents for the house, finance, etc. There are another 4 folders behind the front ones. The boxes are used for storing business cards, sticky tape, etc

The children's birth certificates going missing was clear proof this was not enough so I purchased a new metal filing box to hold all important documents such as passports, birth certificates, driving licence, bank books, etc (also had the brain wave that god forbid we had a fire this would keep them safe). This sits nicely out of the way on my printer! I plain to stain the draw box the same colour as the desk top, these drawers hold birthday cards, personalised labels for clothing, lunch boxes, etc

I had also noticed that I had school memorabilia scattered around the place i.e. artwork, certificate's etc and I came across a fabulous idea on a blog I came across (which unfortunately I cannot find again) to have a folder for each child's school stuff. So of course it could not be any old folder, I had to personalise them and make them look nice - separate post about this later!

I purchased some filing drawers for our expense receipts, these used to be put in a draw and then we came to claiming them we would spend hours working out who's they were (my husbands or mine) and which business they were for (husbands work, my corporate work or party company). This has made life alot easier. Still need to type up the draw lables.

My last new addition was clear folders for currently projects I am working on or current events  happening in the family. This saves me going through a mountain of paper to find what I am looking for in a hurry, which I always seem to be in.

Lots of American blogs also have house cleaning schedules, schedules for admin, schedules for meal planning to name a few as much as I would love to be this organised with paperwork I think if I do those as well I would never actually have the time to do the cleaning, admin and cooking!