Office in a box

Like most people, I've had a neverending struggle on how to best organize pesky paperwork clutter.
I started off with multiple accordion files scattered throughout the house. One day I sat down and went through them all throwing out a whole pile of bills including phone bills from 2006!
I looked online for the papers you should keep for tax purposes and surprisingly 7 year old phone bills were not one of them.
I then grouped what paper I had left into piles and stored them in a bag under the bed! Yeah, I know. Random.
Bills and statements for the current year I kept out in the office area for easy access but I wanted to keep them altogether in an organised, functional and of course nice looking, not at all paper hoarding, way.
Thats when I came across this post from Mairdville Manor blog about an Office in a box. Who would have thought under this lid was a bunch of boring paperwork files!

The box is split into 3 functions.

I have a file box with suspension files for historical papers including mortgage, tax returns, contracts etc.

 I used an old filer to gather all our warranties and manuals. Its not pretty but it does the job and its then hidden away.

I split them into general catagories including Kitchen, Electrical and Kids.

Then there's the blue file where I store the most recent documents for the year. Once the year is over, I will go through and throw away bills I wont need for tax purposes etc and then move the rest into the bigger file box.

And they all pack away nicely in the box and stored in our office area.

         
I also have this filing system out on the shelf for our current paperwork. Bills to pay, and then file, junk mail to look at etc.

In the white box I keep our receipts. I then go through this every now and then, file what I need to keep for warranties etc and throw away the rest.

So I guess I have a bit of a processing line happening with this filing business. If you make it to the big file box, you're one of the lucky ones!!

I hope this gives you an idea of another way you can control your paperwork! Its Pretty but functional!


Linking up with I Heart Organizing
                                    

Our play area

 

 This is a project Ive been working on for awhile. No project in this house gets done quickly. I put in a lot of thought, theres some trial and error, pinteresting, and lots of lots of thinking.

We dont have a big house but I like the idea of a play area for Little Man, somewhere in the living area so he's with us. Inevitably most of the toys he's playing with end up in our living area but thats fine, then at the end of the day they're packed away here.

After much contemplation, I decided the Expedit would be the best major piece of storage furniture.

This way we can fit books, stand alone toys as well as his smaller toys like blocks, cars etc.

The top shelf is currently being used for some of my craft stuff as well as a box of his craft bits and pieces.

Because Im looking at budget options, I havent gone too matchy matchy and tried to use stuff from around the house.

I did purchase from Ikea the purple Skubb boxes on sale, the white Kassett boxes and the 2 green Drona cubes which were also on sale. (I just noticed however the Green doesnt seem to be available at the Adelaide branch anymore) All of these are quite size deceiving and managed to fit most of his toys and craft goods really easily.

The very top of the unit I have a couple of frames I found which I need to fill, some pencils, glue and pipe cleaners, in the Bee caddy is some extra playdough and paints and the blue box has lots of random computer items which I need to find a home for.

I was lucky enough to win a Scotch adhesive pack from Bianca over at  A Little Delightful. I pulled these out yesterday to hang some canvas prints in a spare corner of the room.

Underneath these Im going to add some Bekvam spice racks to hold some of his books. Im sure we've all seen this ikea hack idea.

About an hour after taking these shots, the Play canvas fell down. Twice. Seems those adhesives arent strong enough to hold it. So for now its off the wall.

Sorry for the crappy photo (still amateur in the photography front too!) but this is his little table set up where he can draw and play with playdough etc. It is a little on the small side so im looking at purchasing another Lack table and move it to the middle of the room. The train set on the rug is going to move after his birthday since we bought him one of those train tables (which im thinking will move next to the window).

I also need a bigger rug and then finish off the office space on the other side of the room.

Always lots to do which keeps me busy, although frustrated cos I want to do it all at once!

Bits n bobs clutter

I have this drawer in my buffet that Ive been meaning to clear out for awhile. It has all my picture hanging and some felt pads stuffed in there.

Enter these couple of storage items I purchased cheaply on the weekend. Originally they were going to be used for some crafty items but I thought how useful they would be to help clear out this drawer.

Its one of those quick jobs you wonder why it took so long to get to it!

This compartment container holds all the picture hanging items, although whilst I was sorting them out I wondered if I would ever use them anyway now theres such a thing as command strips! Theres also some cup hooks I bought for another project. Im sure these items will come in handy one day!

The drawers house all the 3M stuff in the top drawer

and the felt pads in the bottom.

All done. And now Im left with an empty drawer to fill!

3 Things Thursday

3 Things im loving this week are...

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, or just not noticing my contstant HOLIDAY updates on FB, you would know Im VERY excited to be having a small break from the rat race!! Just some time to spend with my family and doing the things I love to do like bake and craft and update stuff around the house.

One mission I have just accomplished, was painting 2 out of the 3 side table set I have. Now just pondering what the 3rd colour will be....

And lastly I got my couches and rug cleaned yesterday. The state of them has been driving me nutso lately and then I saw on one of those deal sites, a carpet cleaning package for $69! I just asked the company if I could swap the 4 rooms to these 3 pieces. We only have 2 carpeted rooms anyway!

So that's a little of what's been happening. Exciting stuff round these parts ya know!

3 Things Thursday (Friday edition)

Oopsie already forgotten my 3 Things on Thursday posting due to Anzac Day yesterday!

Here's my top 3 from the past week...

1. This is one of the trays I bought from the op shop seen here, painted and added some cute patterned paper. I tried to find a small piece of glass to protect the paper but couldn't find one that would fit. However this works ok for now. Good thing is, the paper is easily swapped around.

2. Yesterday we did a mini clean out. This room is one big space divided by the front door, with the other side being our lounge. I want to turn this bit into a playroom/office but at the moment it stores Husbys music equipment. Behind where the drums are used to be my grandmas dresser/armoire. This has now been moved into the dining room and this space will now house possibly a 4x4 expedit for toy storage. Once our new shed is up all the music junk precious stuff will be moved into our old shed which will turn into the band room. Phew, if you didn't get that, don't worry i'm sure Ill blog about it as things happen.

3. You have most likely seen these plates in the lastest Target catalogue and yep, I had to have some. Although it was hard to stop at these 4!  I love anything owls so these were perfect!

Easter 2013

I had such great intentions to get this post up on Monday but like most of the Easter weekend, I didn't get much achieved that I wanted too. Except if you call having a carefree, relaxing weekend and spending time with my family a good achievement, then I did well!

Anyway, I thought I'd cater for those people who are still longing for some post Easter pics including my random decorations (dont have that many built up in my collection yet), tablescaping and some pics of Chocolate!

Easter Sunday is family day and since I love any chance to decorate and entertain, Im often the hostess. Yay!

But first, the night before I quickly fashioned some bunny feet out of white paper and pink leftover scrapbooking paper, which led to Master A's gifts.

Since he's not quite 2, we didn't indulge in too much chocolate. Instead giving him some Little People eggs, Charley Bear PJ's which will hopefully last through winter, a wind up egg, and a little chocolate bunny which i sorta packaged up in the bee bucket.

 For lunch we had my parents, brother, SIL and MIL, so just a small gathering.

I had little cupcakes in each of their bowls, moreso for presentation to begin with and then they came out later for dessert!

I added on my buffet Master A's Easter related soft toys. Ironically the Peter Rabbit and duck toys were given by his grandparents when he was born.

I made some Easter biscuits also. Someone said they look like playdough on top!

I trust you all had a chocolate filled Easter and much loved time with your familes.