Get paper under control with 3-ring binders

Louise's paper organizing secret:

View binders (3-ring binders with a clear vinyl overlay on the covers) are an organizing favorite. I use them for organizing everything from my Christmas information, notes and ideas, to the appliance manuals and receipts, to articles that I have pulled out of magazines (to get rid of the paper clutter in the house.)  Also, each kid has a notebook, where I keep school reports, medical and immunization info and other relevant paperwork.

Here's the fun part:  I use wrapping paper to decorate the outside of each notebook-  so my Christmas notebook has holly paper,  my gardening notebook has a floral paper, and I let my boys choose papers for their notebooks (cars and dinosaurs), and the manual notebook has a striped paper.  That way, I can grab the one I need easily and they look great on the shelf as well.

Whatever papers you need to reference often, or things you only need once a year and have to hunt for, are both great candidates for this sort of order--  I have an idea/wish notebook, a craft notebook, and a household upkeep notebook, where I keep things like paint color information and the dates and receipts from when we have work done.  Make it work for you!

Comments

[Picholine]

Great idea! And I like the wrapping paper technique. Another way (albeit more time consuming) is to make themed-collage covers, which would also be a fun project for the kids (and a way to recycle all those magazines!). A recipe binder could have a food collage cover and the childrens' individual binders could just be collages of whatever their favorite things are.

[Jeri Dansky]

And if you have more money and less time, you could buy some attractive binders - different ones for different things.

Here are some binders to consider: http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/2007/03/3-ring-binders-now-we-are-12.html

[Nelly]

This is a great idea that I'll probably will put to use.

I use those view binders for scrapbooking layout ideas that I tear off of magazines for easy reference and I've used one previously to collect decorating information before moving into our new home. As I found a look or idea/item/furniture I liked from magazines or web, I put them there.