Operation Organization--Week Two

Last week I decided to play along with Melinda and her Operation Organization challenge. I decided to do my baskets. (I'm doing small things at this point.) Can you believe my week flew by and I didn't get to it until this morning? Oh well. It's done! Here's the project in process:

You wouldn't believe all the garbage I had in there! I had restaurant coupons that expired in February. And Christmas cards we sent out that were returned because we had the wrong address. And field trip info for trips that happened long ago. So...toss, toss, toss. There were other papers in there that belonged somewhere else...so those got relocated. My treasure hunt also revealed a book I had wondered about, and two Target gift cards (too bad they were Pickle's, I like shopping at Tar-jay). I organized our bills (yes, I'm admitting we aren't very organized there--thank God for online bill paying). Random addresses saved from cards were inputed into my contacts. So, it might not look like I did much...but lots of info was weeded through. The baskets now:

I realized that I really should have opened my cabinet when I took the "before" photo--cause oodles of the papers I had to move went up there in my files. I cleaned those out too. I have files for each kid's school stuff, for medical stuff, bills, etc. The binder you see on the right is our family's operating manual (we don't really call it that, but we don't call it anything--will take all suggestions!!). That book contains daily checklists for each of us, chore lists, starter grocery list for each week, etc. and is a life-saver for my ADD-needs structure-pretty busy-family.

This next week's task should be easier. I'm going for the junk drawer. Seems like a good idea before school begins...this is regular task because it is a shoving-stuff-place just like those baskets are. So I will organize it again...so that it can actually be useful to all of us. Here it is today:

Can you believe we live like this? Just being real, bloggies.

Feel free to join us at Melinda's blog!