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Archive for July, 2009

Filing cabinets 101

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Hooray for a fully organized music collection and a synchronized portable music box!

Now to refresh the music on my mini player for exercising and I’m SET!

This morning I went to help the children’s pastor at my church organize her office some more. We did the main part of her office the first time I went. We did her file cabinet this time. And next time we’ll hit the storage room. She had a four-drawer file cabinet and was only effectively using one drawer. All the other drawers were filled with information from the woman who held the office before she did–four years ago.

So we took it all out and sorted out what was actually usable and useful. Information available on the internet? Don’t need a paper copy. Notes from 2004? Not necessary. Forms for the people working in the children’s section? Put into a folder and easily accessible.

All in all, we recycled three trash-cans full of paper. And then we got her curriculum folders set up, got the volunteer information sorted, got her conference information sorted and accessible. She had one drawer in her desk filled with folders, too. So of the 5 drawers available, she was using 2. She’s now able to use all 5 of those, one of which is just for personal storage (purse, umbrella) and the others are all separated into folders so she can get into things and keep things easily filed and findable.

It was great! I think it’s going to work out really well for her.

For anyone looking at trying to organize your folders, here’s a few tips for you:

LABEL ALL YOUR FOLDERS. If you’re not doing this, you’re never going to be able to find anything and then what’s the point of filing it?
If you’re using hanging folders, put the tab on the front of the folder. That way, when you go to find the folder, you can just pull the tab toward you and open the folder. This is really effective for things that you do monthly, like bills. Just slide the folder open, drop in the latest bill, and you’re done! If you need to go back and find information, it’s all already in chronological order, with the most recent information at the front of the folder.
If you keep information that you only want to have on hand for a set length of time, separate it in sections that fit that period. For example, if you want to keep 3 years of your bills (and, by the way, you don’t need to do this–I’ll come back some time and write a post about what is and isn’t important to save and for how long), separate each year. Put them in their own folders, put them in manila envelopes, put them in separate sections of a 3-ring binder, whatever works for you, just make it obvious when one year ends and the other begins. This way, when you start a new year, you can pull out the papers from the dates furthest back without having to sort through. Just pull and toss (shred, recycle, etc.).
Go through your folders every year. Just skim through and check that the information is being put into the right folders, that the information isn’t obsolete, that things are looking like they should. It’ll also refresh your memory about what you’re keeping and why. None of this, “Oh! I forgot I had that! That’s important!”
If you keep important papers in your home–marriage license, death certificate, birth certificate, social security card, passport, any of those papers that are vital and would be difficult to replace in the case of fire or flooding, put them into a place where they are easy to grab in case of sudden evacuation. Make sure that everyone in the house knows where to find them.

I was tempted to write that you try not to keep papers that aren’t really necessary, but that’s really up to you. Mostly, it’s up to whether you can keep everything organized with everything you’re keeping. If you can maintain several drawers filled with paper, finding what you need, not creating chaos with the amount you’re holding onto, then that’s great! Knock yourself out!

But if you’re drowning and not able to find anything and not able to maintain any sort of system, then I would recommend trying to sort out what you don’t need to keep. This article is a great place to start if you’re wondering what you should keep and what you can get rid of. I highly recommend it.

Do you have anything that’s worked really well for you in your filing system? Do you have any questions about how you could approach your filing differently? Please leave a comment!

Happy filing!

Tags: organizing
Posted in organizing |

My music project

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

I’m having a blah sort of day. It’s cloudy out and humid and hot and I’m tired. I went for a walk again this morning and I’ve been working on getting my music collection all organized on my computer. And that’s all I’ve done today. I have a dozen projects sitting here in my office that I could, and maybe should be doing, but I just can’t pull up the motivation.

I am absolutely tickled about my music, though. I haven’t been keeping care of that because I don’t usually listen to music on my home computer. I have a music box that I carry with me and I listen to music on that. But I realized that there’s a lot of music in my collection that wasn’t making it on to the box. Part of that problem, I realized, was because the music wasn’t on my computer to start with. And another part of that problem was that the files were saved in a format that didn’t work with my portable.

So I found a converter that works really well. And I’ve been copying files from CDs onto my harddrive. And then I’ve been going through and fixing the file names and making sure everything looks right and is organized right. And then finding more music that I could add. And fixing those names and reorganizing.

And syncing the one to the other again and again and again because something is always just a little bit off. And for some reason 290-some songs always think that the ones on the music box are different from the ones on my computer even though I can’t see a single thing that would be different between the two. They’re the same files! Silly electronic devices, talk with each other nicely!

But I’m proud of the converter program that I was able to find. I got it from C-Net’s download page, which I figured was one of the most secure places to get downloads. And it’s this great, simple little program that does exactly what I want it to do–take the files, make them into mp3s and put them back in the same spot. Ding! Done.

I’m also proud of how, with the programs I downloaded, because I downloaded two of them and then deleted the weird one that didn’t work, I was able to remove the faulty program and then fix my system menu to remove the extra shortcuts and programs that both programs installed on my system and get everything exactly like I wanted it to be set. I can be computer savvy! It’s great.

I can also be obsessive. I’ve been working on this music thing since Sunday. Hours and hours of converting files, renaming files, refiling files, and then syncing them with my music box.

Oh! And then let’s talk about podcasts!

Or not.

Because I have 200 Escape Pod podcasts and a couple hundred other files for Pod Castle and I Should Be Writing and PodRunner and 5 different Podiobooks.com subscriptions and the 7am NPR News Summary. And they won’t all fit on my music box. And I want to have some of them upload automatically when they update and only have 5-10 of the others on my music box at a time because I’m still going through the archives. And if I can get the 290-some files to stop making faces at themselves, then I can get my music box to automatically sync each time I plug it in and have a rotating podcast library that I can carry with me and not overwhelm the file size.

And it’s been taking me forever.

And Justin keeps laughing at me when he sees that I’m still working on the same project.

But the files! They must be organized! And they are! And it’s at 30% of the sync and then I’ll be able to look at how well it actually turned out this time!

I really hope this is the last time.

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Tags: ain't technology grand?, organizing, what i did with my day
Posted in Living! |

My Monday list

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Alrighty, it’s a Monday!

So, the weekend really wasn’t much to speak of. I spent most of it being luxuriously lazy. Serious slothfulness. It was fantastic. I read a book, I played games with Justin. I played games with friends online. It was really a very relaxing weekend.

Meaning I woke up this morning with a need to redeem the “lost” time over the weekend.

I got up, poked at my computer reading comics, and then got dressed and went out to mow the lawn. Did you know I use a reel mower? I love my mower. Usually, since we moved into a place with a lawn, Justin snatches up the lawn chores as one of his things. A husband project. But since I’m home this month and it’s stupidly hot, I’ve been getting up in the morning on weekdays and taking care of the lawn. It’s hot, sticky work, but I love the snip-snip-snip sound of my mower and the work of the whole thing and the beautiful look of the lawn once it’s done.

So I did yard work for a while and then went for a walk around the pool to get a little straight-forward exercise in while it was still not terribly hot.

After getting cleaned up, I tidied the house, took care of a few projects, made some phone calls. I kept a list of what I did today. It started out as a list of things to do, and then ended up adding things that I’d done that weren’t on the original list just so I could see what I’d done.

This is what I ended up with:

DONE:

Mow the lawn
Weed whack, rake, and spray weeds
Go for a walk
Call the dentist to confirm my appointment
Call the town office about the extra trash can
Tidy the house
Make rice pudding (slow-cooker)
Clean the fridge
Put the boxes in the attic
Cancel the protection plan on the credit card
Take a break
Call Julie to apologize for missing last night (leave a message)
Email Kim to confirm our Wednesday appointment
Fold the clothes in my dresser drawers
Order tickets for the wedding in August
Go to the dentist at 4:00
Stop at the grocery store for a few things
Talk with Julie
Finish the movie I was watching while folding
Talk with Justin about car stuff
Start the grill to do the corn
Write a post

TO DO:

Read the “Publications” page on the business license page
Make a hurricane evacuation plan
Figure out the IRA information
Clean up MyMusic folder on my computer
Think of recycling sorting ideas
Set up the carbon monoxide alarm
Get the notes from the Orman book
Read the paperwork book for organizing
Talk with Audrey about the seamstress
Clip fingernails
Take a bath

I think I might still finish those last two, but the others are just going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Right now I’m grilling corn on the cob, in husks, on our little portable grill. It’s only big enough to fit a few things at a time, but it’s just the two of us, so that works out perfectly. We picked it up a few weeks ago and we’ve used it probably one or two times each week since then. I love it! This is our second time trying corn. The first time turned out so amazing, we had to find out if it was just a fluke or if they’re always that good. I’m using questionable corn today, which might be detrimental to the experiment. But if turns out good, we’ll know that it’s just that amazing to grill corn in husks.

And then we’ll have the rice pudding that I did this afternoon and probably should have added more milk when it was all gone in 1/2 the time the recipe said it should, but hopefully will be yummy anyway.

And then I’m going to relax my evening away!

I hope you all had a fantastic Monday! I’ll see you again tomorrow!

Tags: lists of things, things around the house, what i did with my day
Posted in Living! |

Fixing up chairs on a Friday.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

So, in my efforts to keep up with this better, this is what I did yesterday, complete with a couple pictures!

Yesterday, I got up and puttered a little at my computer. Okay, a lot at my computer. And then I got ready to go to the babysitting gig I thought I had that morning. I remembered that I’d seen a message from Mom on my phone just as I was going to bed, but that my phone had died and I’d plugged it in. So I went to go listen to the message from Mom and discovered another message from the woman for whom I was going to be babysitting, canceling our appointment. I called her back to let her know that I’d received the message and then I changed back out of “decent” clothes and back into “work” clothes.

Then I went out onto the back porch and washed the heck out of the three wooden chairs we had sitting on our front porch. They used to be the kitchen chairs at Justin’s old apartment in upstate New York, so they weren’t actually weather-proofed for that sort of thing. They’re mostly under the cover of the porch, but it doesn’t really protect them that much.

: The front of our house

They were all pretty spotty with mold, so I washed them good and hard for a long time and in the end, they mostly ended up looking like this.

Washed and worn looking

But it’s impressive what a good dark stain will do. This is what I did later in the afternoon.

Newly stained and beautiful

One of them is darker than the other, just because it took more weather damage than the others, but they all look so much better than they did.

: All refreshed and renewed

I think I might give them all a second coat, but I’m going to wait until they’re all good and dry, which means it won’t happen for a week or so. But they’re all covered in a very good weather-resistant stain now, so hopefully they’ll fare better than they had been.

In between washing and staining, because I had to wait for them to dry, I went to the library to return my due book and pick up a handful of others. I’d forgotten how liberating it is to *borrow* books instead of buying them. I can pick up books for research that I wouldn’t want to buy and keep around, but are good to be able to borrow for a while, get the information I want, and then return.

Like The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke by Suze Orman. I’m recommending this read to everybody I know. Seriously. READ THIS BOOK. It’s all about how to get yourself out of debt and into a better place for the future. And it’s not just “stop drinking Starbucks everyday.” It’s “this is what your credit score means and why it’s important and how you can get it better.” It’s “don’t worry about your savings account when you have $10,000 in credit card debt.” And “this is what a Roth IRA is and why you want to start one RIGHT NOW.” It’s “this is how you buy a house, after you’ve paid off your credit card debt and improved your credit score.” It’s really great. I’ve got the book full of Post-it notes and I’m working on doing the things she recommended. But once I’m done, I’m returning the book and I didn’t have to pay a dime for the advice! It’s lovely!

Anyway, back from the library, I went and stained the chairs, listening to podiobooks on my music box, and stupidly forgetting to put on sunscreen or bug spray. My back is a lovely pink now and I’ve got bites all up my legs. My legs were all spotty when I came in, both from the splatter from the stain and because I sat on the grass and I’m allergic to grass. The bug bites didn’t even register until this morning!

So I came in and washed, collapsed for a while because I was tired (sunburn does that) and I’ve lost track of my evening after that. Tired does that. I know Justin and I played a game together for a while and then remembered that one of our favorite shows was coming back on that evening so we watched that. Eureka! Fantastic show. And then we went to bed.

I’m sorry I failed to call, Mom. I will do that sometime today.

Justin found a great pattern for build-it-yourself bookshelves, so I think we might be working on that today, and maybe getting together with online friends to play a computer game online, but I’m not really sure yet.

I hope you’re all having a great day! I’ll check back in again soon!

Cheers!

Tags: financial situations, lessons learned and shared, things around the house, this post contains pictures, what i did with my day
Posted in Living! |

News from the temporarily unemployeed.

Friday, July 10th, 2009

I got a message from Mom last night wondering how I was doing since she’s been checking my site daily and I haven’t been writing anything. I didn’t get the message until this morning and since she’s at work right now and I can’t get a hold of her there and since it’s the hot time of the day when I should be inside to avoid the burning, burning sun, I figured I’d give you all an update. (And then call Mom later this evening.)

I’m at the end of my second week of my 4-week furlough and it’s been going okay. You’d think that having so much time off would be great! Exciting! Relaxing! And then you get there and it’s not exactly what you’d expected.

The way I figure, the next time I have this much time away from work I’ll either be unemployed or dealing with a baby. In either case, I’ll have a major project on my hands. I’ll either be spending hours looking for employment or I’ll be figuring out what to do with a little person entirely reliant on my inexperienced hands.

But with this furlough, I haven’t got that. What I’ve got is a month of trying to figure out what to do with myself, by myself, all day long, for a month.

And, go figure, I waffle between having so much to do that I’m not sure how to handle it and being so fed up with doing projects and just wanting to sit on the couch and watch tv for hours.

So far, I’ve exercised several times and then got so burned out that I took a few days off and then got lazy. (Got to get back to that one.) I’ve explored around town a little—hitting the farmer’s market and the local library. (Oh! That book is due today!) And I’ve done several around the house projects.

I cleaned out the porch closet so I could fit the portable grill to fit in there. I cleaned out the closet in the dining room so I could actually get to the vacuum and the winter stuff was tucked back and the summer stuff brought forward. I cleaned the entire house, dusting, vacuuming, and tidying the whole place from top to bottom. I cleaned out Justin’s car, even wiping down the leather seats with cleaner and oil. (He’s been taking mine to work since I have air-conditioning and he doesn’t. Plus, like 2-times better gas mileage.) I’ve learned how to cook a few different recipes, including a yummy chicken slow-cooking thing. I’ve talked to several different government offices about what I need to do about a business license for my professional organizing. I’ve talked with an investor about opening an IRA for my 401(b) from Toccoa. I’ve mowed the lawn. (Gotta do that one again.) I’ve done the ironing. I’ve practiced piano. I’ve hung a curtain across the bottom of the steps to keep the air-conditioning upstairs at night. I’ve written a few letters.

I’ve met a few people. I was in Target and had a woman start crying and then invite me to a Mary Kay party. And then she and I and another girl went out to lunch on Sunday after church, with Justin and the other girl’s husband. I think we’re going to get together again soon.

I was supposed to babysit on Wednesday, which turned into today, and then got canceled. I was supposed to organize an office on Wednesday, and that got postponed until next Wednesday.

I’ve slept in. I’ve watched tv. I’ve played video games.

I’m trying to get my music collection and podcasts organized on my computer so they sync with my music box. I’ve got to go through and clean up the files for my photographs.

I’ve set up a dentist appointment for Monday afternoon.

And I’ve stared out the window, trying to think of what I should do, what I have the ambition to do, and what I would rather be doing right now than anything else.

And in reading this over, it might sound that I’m discouraged and frustrated with the whole thing, but I’m really pleased with what I’ve been able to do. I’m a little frustrated that I haven’t been working on my weight and fitness like I should be. And I think I might be playing video games more than I should be. But I’ve gotten so many things done!

Today, since my babysitting gig got canceled, I’ve been outside washing mold and junk off three wooden chairs that we have sitting on the front porch. Once they’ve dried off and I make sure that we’re not going to get rain this afternoon, I’m going to go out and paint them with a weather-resistant stain. (This afternoon meaning after 2 or 3 o’clock to avoid the burning heat of the midday sun.) Plus, I apparently need to hit the library, so I’ll be doing that, too.

This weekend, if it’s nice, we’re going to take 1×8 planks of wood that we had from shelving at the old house and stain it so we can use it to make bookshelves for the closet of Justin’s office—where I’m really hoping to finish going through and getting him organized.

Yesterday, Justin had a doctor’s appointment, so he worked from home in the morning and then we went to Savannah together. We hit his appointment, where the ophthalmologist gave him a clean bill of health on his eye situation. (Remember when he was wearing an eye patch for like three months? Iritis.) And then we went to Olive Garden on a gift certificate that I got from work for being the 5S employee of the month. And then we came home for an enjoyable evening of playing games online with friends.

So I’m having a good time! I’m tickled with what I’m getting done! I just constantly feel like I should be doing something *more* when I’m sitting around, trying to think of what to do next. I should work up our hurricane evacuation plan! I should go through my dresser and fold everything! I should weed the pavers in the back yard! I should organize the filing cabinet! I should get clients for my business!

And that’s where I’m at. I will try to remember to post on here now and then. I tend to think of my projects as being exciting for me, but not really for anyone else. But I forget that other people might want to hear about my boring news.

Anyway, I hope you’re all doing really well! Remember to wear your sunscreen and drink lots of water!