Organizing Revolution Challenge 1: The Office

We don't have an actual office in our house.  Our desk and computer, where I pay bills, are right in the middle of the living room, an area that is quite the clutter collector.  I didn't have a good system in place for storing the bills that we had received, or a place for important things like our car payment book or our rental papers.  We just had a few random piles:

Awhile back I bought this black tray at Target to corral our cords and extra chargers, and they were all contained in there, kind of, but they got wrapped up in each other and I couldn't always find what I needed.

The papers had even gotten far enough that some were on my end table (and coupons on the floor next to it too).  I've known for awhile that we needed a bill paying center, and I wanted to label the cords.  This challenge seemed like the perfect time to do all that.

Here's the after shot.  I got a 3-section mesh holder from Walmart (similar to this, only mine cost a lot less).  I still need to add pretty labels, but I want to make sure my sections work first.  Right now I have "To Pay", "To Scan", and "To Shred".  (We scan our bills and then shred them so we have digital copies and less paper clutter.)

And the cords each got a colorful label and a rubber band.  Now I know what each one is for, and I can grab one without worrying about the rest coming with.  It's not perfect, but it's better than it was, and for now, that's enough for me.

For these projects, I spent $7.62 on the mesh organizer at Walmart.  All other materials I had on hand.  Our desk is still kind of a catch-all for random things, but I'm working on seeing what ends up there so I can find a permanent home for each thing.  Just taking care of the paper clutter and the cords made a huge difference!