Pinterest continues to amaze me as an endless source of inspiration, a little while ago I came across this Mail station post by The Nest Effect and I just knew it would work for us so I got thinking how I could recreate it to suit our needs and came up with this mail and paperwork organiser.
In the Tapas household there are always piles of mail to sort, be it mine, my business' or my husband's, DVDs to watch and send back, post to forward to the previous owners of the house, vouchers from supermarkets (well, I quite like a discount, don't you?), etc. I tend to organise household bills and statements in ring binders, I also have to make sure I file everything relevant to my business for the tax man somewhere safe.
On top of that, I am also very careful about shredding everything with personal details (this drives my husband crazy!); so, until now, the result has been piles of paper waiting to be stored in those ring binders or in business files. Because I hardly ever have time to file post away the moment it arrives and in facts it can take weeks or months before I have the chance to go through it all.
I looked online for a home file with no lid (for ease of access) but couldn't find anything appealing enough to sit where I wanted it to live: somewhere on the ground floor out of the way but handy enough to keep on top of it on a daily basis.
Then I remembered this old magazine basket full of back issues of ITI Bulletins (from the Institute of Translation and Interpreting). Perfect!
As you can see it's dark brown so I bought colourful supension folders:
I quickly found out that, probably because it is so old, not all the suspension files were hanging perfectly from it but it doesnt really matter as long as they stay put, which they do (some of them are a bit tighter than the others).
I got writing on the tabs and attaching one to each folder, there is one for each of these:
- My husband
- Me
- My daughter (yes, she gets post, go figure!), I've added the childminder's bills, information, contract and policies there
- Household bills
- Things to be paid / paperwork that requires a phone call
- Outgoing mail
- Rental DVDs (I'm including the envelopes here)
- Things to be shred
- Vouchers (discount vouchers, coupons, leaflets that may be worth keeping as they come through the door)
- Business (things related to my work)
I was tempted to add one for recipes that I cut out but I have my own system already in place for that and, I have just realised, that a handy one would have been Takeaway Menus.
This is my new mail and paperwork organisation system where it now lives. I think it is genius and, with a bit of help from Mr Tapas, I hope to keep it going. Hopefully no more paperwork will build up on the kitchen table anymore.
From now on I just need to take the whole box with me to where I keep all the ring binders and store away or shred as necessary. I have considered having the shredder right next to it but little fingers concern me. In fact, just putting everything in here yesterday has helped me get rid of lots of junk and I've already got the shredder working.
All of this for the cost of a pack of 10 suspension files. I am actually rather thrilled.
What do you think? What system do you use? If it's something you're proud of, why not share?
Amanda (Mummy Manda) says
What a great idea!!! Off to make one now!! XXX
Ruthy J says
What a great idea! And it looks really good too!
Mari says
Love this idea and agree Pinterest is constantly inspiring me 🙂
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
I am really pleased, I usually pin away and dream away as a result but this one was a firm favourite and I'm so glad I put it into practice xx
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
Hi Ruthy, I do love that magazine holder, I have a matching one that is much bigger and square, I wondering what I can do with that one now, at the moment it holds a lot of my handbags... They must be over 10 years old so it's a good lease of life for this one.
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
It's fantastic Mari, I now just need to encourage my husband to follow it. Our kitchen table is always covered in junk and I hate it. I would love to have pretty things on it instead.
Tiffany F. says
Your mail station looks great! I love the file box.
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
Thank you Tiffany, I looked everywhere I could think of in the UK for one similar to yours as I really liked it but couldn't find anything I liked so decided to use this old one. Thank you so much for the idea
sonya says
I seriously need one of these, I just have a drawer stuffed with random paperwork- nightmare when I need to find something!
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
It's been well worthy it Sonya, it's forced me to sort through a lot of stuff already, before there were piles of things waiting to be checked all over the house
ChelseaMamma says
I do need one of these as I am fed up with paperwork being left all over the house.
Think I may have a project for the mindees lol
highland monkeys says
Pinterest certainly has got loads of inspiration. I like your filing system, nice and bright. I don't have one everything gets stuffed into a box, your;s looks much nicer!
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
Oooh Kara, you could get them to help you make it all pretty for you!
Maria @ Feisty Tapas says
Before mine used to consist of piles of paper dotted all aroung the house, causing constant avalanches. I think this method may finally get us organised for good as it means that my husband knows where to store his things too. Thank you for stopping by
Emily says
Really attractive result - definitely on for the projects list on my wall!