Office Supply Epiphany

Ever feel like this in your office?  I did, until a few days ago.

Will finished fixing his model airplane, so I FINALLY unpacked my office.  Well, mostly, anyway.  Our dinosaur of a desktop isn't hooked up yet.  That's a testament to how much we really don't need it, I suppose. It's nice to have when Will leaves & takes the laptop for a few weeks, though.

Part of my procrastination was just plain indecision.  Where on earth did I plan to house my office supplies from when I was teaching?  I don't have anything comparable to the behemoth of a desk I had in my classroom (much like this one).
 

What I do have, however, is a shoe organizer.  I bought it to keep calculators (and cell phones of texting high school students) when I taught.  I need to relabel it, but it's perfect otherwise!

This one cost all of about $10 or so at Walmart.  Just goes to show that organizing does not need to be difficult or expensive!  I don't particularly love the look of this, but I LOVE the function.  (Who really looks at the back of a home office door, anyway?)

Features I love about this:

• Clear pockets make it easy to find what I'm looking for
• The large pockets at the bottom are perfect for paper supplies
• The small pockets are just the right size to fit pens, pencils, a bag of rubberbands, etc.
• My supplies are easy to find and don't take up space on my desk or in my closet.

Want to know how I arranged the items?  Read on!
Have another great way to organize office supplies?  Please comment.

Lesson 6: Cleaning checklist

If I attempt to live without lists and charts, I tend to either procrastinate or panic.  Generally both. As a means of controlling my panic when I returned home from a week-long trip, I created a chore chart for myself. It sounded more productive than drowning myself in cookie dough.

I used to do this in Microsoft Outlook, and I may return to that in the future.  I got annoyed at the software continually reminding me that I was three weeks behind on cleaning the windows, so I erased my recurring tasks from my calendar & went old-school. If you'd like more info on my Outlook method, please leave me a comment.

Check out the chart!

Lesson 5: Get a PR* while Running (Errands)

Since I do not have many obligations right now, it would be easy to run out every time I remember that I need something.  I have found, however, that I have more time for fun activities if I condense my errand adventures into one or two days of the week.   This eliminates driving to the same area of town multiple times each week. The trick is to remember where you need to go and to plan the most efficient way of getting there.

Lesson 4: Easy Access to Your Recipes

I know, only true organizational geeks catalog anything, right?  I beg to differ, especially when I'm hungry!

Reasons to catalog your recipes:
1) When you make a great recipe, you will remember to use it later.
2) When you remember a great recipe, you will know where to find it.
3) Making a menu becomes as easy as opening a folder.  You no longer have to search through cook book after cook book trying to solve the weekly mystery of "What's for dinner?". Though the initial organization takes some time, it is fairly easy to maintain, and it saves me about thirty minutes each week in menu planning. (see Lesson 3)
4) If you catalog online, evil military movers cannot lose your cookbooks!

Now, for HOW to organize those recipes.

Lesson 3: Fast, Delicious Meals at Home

I feel a need for a break from the moving theme.  I arrived home last night from a mini-vacation to an empty fridge and pantry, with very little time for grocery shopping today. Fortunately, I had the tools to make my trip to the commissary (military grocery store) very quick and painless!  I had my menu made and my grocery list done in 15 minutes. Then, I shopped and checked out in 45 minutes, which included a decent amount of time browsing the ice-cream aisle.  I honestly could not believe how much time cataloging recipes and using a grocery list form really does save until I tried it myself.

Lesson 2: Resources for Housing Decisions

Part of my moving checklist (see Lesson 1) is to research housing in our new town.  That is a very broad directive, so I want to share my process for doing this.

Lesson 1: Moving Checklist

Moving To-Do List
This is a checklist that I have used for my last two military moves.  I do not expect it to include all of your needs, but I hope it is a good starting point! I will decode all acronyms at the bottom, for my civilian friends.