That's Neat! Blog

Here are my favorite finds from the National Association of Professional Organizers Conference for dealing with paper:

WallMates – From At-A-Glance®, these self-adhesive dry erase surfaces turn any wall or flat surface into an area for your to do list, goals, or whatever you need to jot down. WallMates are repositionable, don’t damage your walls (or office furniture) and come blank or with a monthly calendar outline. Thinking beyond the office, this could be a great place for important notes in a kitchen or mudroom.

Bring some more organization to your projects or paper piles with the Stackit™ organizers from Smead . These folders hold papers vertically, with three tabbed sections and a flap.

If you are ready to go paperless, check out the NeatDesk® Scanner from NeatReceipts®. This scanner has separate slots for scanning business cards, receipts, and regular 8x11 documents…all at the same time! And the software knows to put business card information into contacts (synchs with Outlook for example), receipts into one folder, and documents into a third folder.

Today is March 15th, one month before the federal income tax day of April 15th. Are your taxes done? If not, have you carved out some time to do them or get your papers together for the accountant? Take out your calendar and schedule some time right now.

After helping numerous clients over the past six weeks get their papers in order for taxes, I finally got mine done this week. I feel so much better because that task is off my To-Do list, and now I can relax and enjoy the National Association of Professional Organizers Conference next week in Baltimore!

Here is my post from a few years ago about getting organized for taxes. If you have any great tips to share, please post or email me!

I love to use a desktop file holder for key files and action items because it keeps critical information at your fingertips. Why not use a file container that you like to look at?

A client did just that, inspired by the January project in the 12 Months of Organizing 2012 Desk Calendar Creative Storage Solutions.

She was so excited to show me her work, and I’m happy to share her example! This cheery file bin now sits in the corner of her living room, near her computer.

If you’d like to get some organizing inspiration, 2012 Desk Calendars are now 50% off!

National Organize Your Office Day is March 8th!

No, I didn't make this up. I just learned that this "holiday" happens every March.

So plan some time this Thursday to give your office a little TLC.

Whether you have 15 minutes or 2 hours, take some action. You’ll feel better, I promise!

• Clear your desk surface: file papers, get rid of what doesn't belong, keep only what you use every day out
• File or recycle any papers on the floors
• Set up an action folder for key projects
• Purge your file cabinet
• Control your cords and cables

For more office and paper organizing ideas ideas, read these blog posts:

• Martha Stewart at Staples
• Desktop File System
• Magazine Mania
• Organizing for Emergencies
• Preparing for Taxes 

It just happens that I'm teaching my Papers, Piles & Projects class on National Organize Your Office Day. Still time to register for the class!

While making a quick trip to Staples yesterday to pick up a few supplies for clients, I was pleasantly surprised to find a fun line of organizing products from Martha Stewart. There were journals, labels, binders, desktop accessories and file folders.

My favorites:

• I liked the desk top organizers and accessories. I ended up picking up a few open boxes to bring some organization to my desk drawer – all other desk organizers were too tall to fit my drawer, but not these!
• I love labels and there were all kinds for the kitchen, including larger white board and chalk board labels! I chose a small package of round removable labels. They were made for spice containers, but apparently are dishwasher and freezer safe…so I may use them for my daughter’s containers and water bottles for school.
• Some vertical file folders also caught my eye. Made to go into a magazine file, the folders had tabs at the top. I have a few clients that like to file in a magazine file and these might help bring a bit more order to their papers.

No compensation was received for this post.