I’m a Fellowes Neat Freak

20150227_17061120150227_172003

This really is a post that should have been written a while ago as weeks ago the lovelies from Fellowes sent me some fabulous Banker Boxes and files after I tested out their “What kind of filer are you?” quiz. It was quite fun, took two minutes and it turns out I’m a neat freak, who knew.
According to the experts at Fellowes this means that…

The ‘Neat Freak’

If someone moves something from your desk, you (and they) will know about it. As a Neat Freak you’re almost obsessive in your desire to make your world uniformed and orderly. You have a place for everything – and everything has its place. You will restore harmony with a swift re-alignment of a stapler and move of a mouse mat. Mess is your biggest enemy. You will never allow it to destroy the minimalism that dominates your busy working environment. You have an enthusiastic approach to maintaining order and you need a storage solution to suit.

They are spot on!

If things aren’t properly tidied in the office I can’t concentrate. I cannot abide a messy office! I’ve always thought of myself (until recently) as a person with a tip top filing system until I had to find certain statements and documents in a hurry. Oh the angst having paperwork you know you have but can’t find causes. After wasting an hour of my life finding it I realised the perfect use for the Banker Boxes I’d so generously been sent. I reorganised my paperwork system, archived tonnes of documents (the curse of the self-employed means we have to keep so many records for a period of time) and shredded anything finished with that needed to be securely disposed of.

Fellowes

What I’m left with is a system that makes it so easy to find what I need as I’m not ploughing through old records first. My archived records are nicely tucked away out of sight however are easy to get to and to find what I need should the occasion arise. This week Roy and I moved my office around so it works better (I couldn’t move for files before!) so it looks neat and tidy and I know at the back of my mind that it truly is organised even in those places you can’t see. All is calm and well in the office.

If you want to check out what your filing style is, to find out more about some fabulous filing solutions (and more) have a nosy at the quiz.

Desperate Organisation Needed.

This is my calm and relaxing work area which enables me to focus properly on the rather horrifically large to-do lists that seem to congregate in and around my DodoPad diary every day.

desk-after

The problem with this beautiful work area is that when it comes to paperwork, it really lets me down. What you can’t see is that the lovely filing cabinet on the left is so full that you can’t extract anything from it.

What you also can’t see is that there is a huge pile of filing in the small cupboard to the right and that I daren’t open the door any more as everything will just fall all over the place.

Believe it or not I thrive on being organised. I like everything to be in its proper place and that includes my paperwork however time and a mass of paperwork has conspired against me and I’m left with a jumbled mess that will take an evening or more to plough through and I just haven’t quite got the time at the moment…..

Clearly what I need are some additional filing cabinets so that I may properly sort out my papers but more than that I need A System.

In my brain I know that I should deal with my paperwork the same way that I deal with my emails. I have filters in place (get rid of junk mail, don’t let myself get distracted until it is the right time), set aside time each day to deal with mail and papers and not be afraid to trash (or shred) anything I can’t recycle and don’t need.

“Buy new filing cabinets” is definitely on my to do list come pay day. My question for you all today is: How do you deal with your household and business paperwork?
Obviously I keep the paper to a minimum, preferring less wasteful alternatives such as digital files however can’t escape the paper altogether. I’d love to hear what everyone else does to keep on top.

It turns out office furniture can merge practical uses as well as interior design.
It turns out office furniture can merge practical uses as well as interior design.

 

*Featured post