"Show Me Your Systems" said Shay (Office Bookshelf)

This is Shay and Shawn. In a photo I "borrowed" from Shawn's facebook.
But ... I TOOK this photo of them so I'm figuring it's ok for me to "borrow" it.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Aren't they cute ?

I don't know that I've introduced you to Shay before.
I'm sure you've heard me talk about her and if you've been to my food blog,
you'll know that she inspires me to try (and introduces me to) a plethora of new recipes.
Don't you just love that word ? Plethora.

I do.

Love the word.

Plethora.

Sheesh ... have I lost you already ?

Focus people. Focus.

Shay inspires me to do lots of things.
She and I spend hours talking on the phone ...
since I live in Australia and she lives in America.
She knows me better than most.
She listens and supports and encourages.

She is my book source.
Whenever I need to read a good book,
I just ask and she's always got a new one that I need to read !
She inspires me to be healthy.
Many years ago, she inspired me to think differently.
To question.
To really understand what I say and do ...

Hard to explain the impact this woman has had on my life in the 17 years I've known her.
Enormous. Gigantic. Immense. Gargantuan.

These words aren't big enough.

She is my dearest friend.

Anyway ... while I was hanging out with Shay in Colorado, she asked me to do her a favor.
Sure ... what ?
Photograph my "systems". How I organize things. And put it on my blog !
She and I are always complaining that the majority of organizing blogs don't have photos.
Some do ...
But it's frustrating to go to ones that don't !

So ... here, without further ado, is my first installment of ...




Just to let you know ... I didn't tidy anything up before I took these photos.
My objective in organizing is not to have a perfect looking house.
I'm more of a practical organizer.
The common areas where people visit with us are more decorative ... but we'll get to those areas.

In my office, it's all about practicality.
I'm in here a lot.
A LOT !
I need to be able to function.
To find things easily.
More importantly .. to be able to put things away easily.

Today's subject ...
The big bookshelf in the office.
May I just add that I put this bad boy together ... MYSELF !

Here's the overall view.
I had to take the photo laying on the floor to get the whole thing ...

Let's start from the top and move down ...
I do not like to waste space.
As you can see, I utilize every bit of it.

I love these cardboard boxes that the notebooks stand up in.
This one houses year books, old photo albums that I need to go through, DTS notes,
printed copies of my weekly letter ...




Plastic shoe boxes.
I've always loved them.
I have them full of different craft things.
It works because when I have each 'activity' sorted and at my fingertips when I feel like doing it.
My boxes are labeled but you can't read the labels in the photos
so I've added readable labels for you ...



Ok ... now onto the actual top shelf.
I've got those cardboard notebook holders there again.
They just keep everything neat.
You know ... if I pull out one of the notebooks, the others aren't falling over.
That drives me crazy.

These are photo album / scrapbooks.
Haven't worked on them for years.



I do have a few special bits and pieces in front of the photo albums
for decoration / memorabilia sake.



Next shelf down ... very messy at the moment.
This is where the practicality comes in.
I have lots of papers.
Bills, coloring things from the kids, recipes, birthday cards etc ...
Where does all that stuff live ?
Well, most of it has homes but there's no way I can put them all into their homes
straight away.
Filing trays. I love them. I use them LOTS.
They are my catch all.
I'll tell you what they trays have in them in a minute.

The boxes on this shelf ... I'm going to open them for you in the next post !
Won't that be exciting ??



Ok ..
The trays.
1. Rory has a tray. You know, he'll print stuff out and then I don't know what to do with it.
I put it in his tray. Mail that he's read and may want to look at again soon ... in his tray.

2. I have a tray of magazines/articles/etc that people have lent me ... so they don't get lost.

3. I have a tray of blank ruled paper.

4. I have a tray of lined notebooks.

5. I have a tray of white paper for the printer.

6. Things the kids have colored that I MIGHT want to keep but can't decide. They go in a tray until I do the filing and then I make the decision as to what stays and what goes.

7. I have a tray with loose recipes that eventually get put into my 'keeper' cookbook.

8. I have a tray of missions stuff. (a role we fill at our church)

9. Photo paper and some things I need to read. I am going to get rid of this tray though.

10. Personal filing.

11. Business filing. (bills)

12. Pending.

Phew ... that's a lot of trays.

I'll do my filing soon and show you what they usually look like.
They're not normally as full as they are now ... nor quite as messy !!

Standing up beside the trays is a cool craft book that Shay and Shawn gave Alia for Christmas.



Next shelf down.
Four black notebooks. These house the kids artwork that I do decide to save. So far, they have two each. The white notebook is bits and pieces (magazine/newspaper articles) that I want to keep. I will go through and cull them and some of them will eventually go into scrapbooks but for now they live there where I can easily find those things that I used to spend time going "now where did I put that thing ??"

The blue and purple containers have CD's with photos on them ...
and the white 'basket' has my mic for when I record songs using garage band.



Oops, I didn't label the boxes below. Ok ... the blue thing is my laminator.

The three small boxes are:
1. Rulers and Glues
2. Cutting Tools
3. Miscellaneous

The notebook and books in the middle are craft oriented.

Then there's my label maker. Every organizers dream toy !!
( a birthday present to me from Shay a few years ago !! )

The big boxes are :
1. Envelopes. I never buy envelopes. I save junk mail ones and put labels on them ...
2. Stickers. Yeah, I know ... it's a big box of stickers. I'll open it up and show it to you soon !



Phew ... almost there !

The bottom doors ...

One section holds all of our photos that are not in photo albums. One day ...



And this is miscellaneous office supplies, notebooks, folders, plastic sleeves ...



So ... there you go !!

Tomorrow I will open up three boxes for you and show you what's inside !