1. Turn off the notifications - it is disruptive and impact your train of thought.
2. Have allocated times during the day where you check your emails.

1. Inbox
2. Sent box
3. Spam folder
4. Trash folder

I always get the same reaction when I mention the words “admin and filing” to clients. It seems that people have a natural aversion towards it. Admin and filing is plain sailing if you have a system in place. All you need is a change in mind-set, a recycle bin, a letter opener, a filing tray, a filing system and a to-do/action system. Let me share some tips on how I do it:

• Open all envelopes. Discard envelopes and junk mail immediately in the recycling bin.

• Sort through all the mail and create two piles.

1. Filing
2. To-do/action

• All items to be filed are kept in a central place. I use a drawer in my desk for this, which is out of sight. These items are dealt with, so you can decide how often you want to file these. I do it once a month. You can decide on the frequency, but don’t go over 2 months. The task will then be overwhelming.

• Organize the to-do/action pile further into the following categories:

1. Payments
2. Phone calls
3. Correspondence entered into
4. Diarising/pending entries in your diary, etc.

• Use your diary for the above if you cannot deal with it at that point in time. Once you are done, the mail/piece of paper can move over to the filing tray. 

• People like to use paper trays on their desk, but be careful of these. It is usually just another space for paper clutter. You can have one to-do/action tray, but only if you are disciplined enough to use it and you manage these items in your diary.

• A workable filing system and proper labeling is important.

• I use lever-arch files and a bookshelf for my filing. Each file is properly labelled and I have sub-dividers inside the files for further organizing.

• On filing day, I will organize the stack of papers according to the labels on my files. I file these piles per lever-arch file and before you know it, you are done.

• If you deal with your mail and admin as they arrive at home, you will have no reason to hate it anymore. It is really easy as 1,2,3

Happy filing!

You will be in control, you will not miss payments (and save on interest) and important events, dates or outings and you will not waste time looking for documentation.

Adele xx

Organize the supplies into different categories first.

• Ribbon, raffia, twine, rope.
• Cellotape (transparent adhesive tape), double-sided tape, glue and scissors. Buy a pair of scissors for your gift wrapping storage and you will NEVER look for scissors again.
• Tissue paper, gift bags and wrapping paper.
• Greeting cards stickers and envelopes.
• Decorating items, e.g. feathers, beads, crystals, tags, etc.
• Pens and fibre-tip pens for writing the cards or for writing on the gifts 

Decide on where you are going to store your supplies. I would recommend your home-office/study area or 1 or 2 shelves in the linen cupboard.

Decide on your type of storage, which is also dependent on where you are storing it, as well as your categories in number 1 above. I used shoebox-style containers for my supplies. This is the exciting part and where you can go wild. Decide on something that will suit your personality and décor style. The possibilities are endless.

• Plastic containers
• Boxes
• Wicker Baskets
• Laundry Baskets
• Mason Jars
• Plastic drawer trolleys on wheels
• Custom-made wrapping stations

Now for the fun part! Add your supplies, per categories to your chosen storage.  I also use sub-storage for smaller items. I colour-code my ribbon into smaller containers, which all go together in a box, labelled “Ribbons”.

The most important part and this is where your creativity will come in handy, is the labelling of your storage. It is imperative that you label the storage. Otherwise you will end up wasting time looking for the items in the different boxes and you will be disorganized again, as your categories will go out the window.

Gift wrapping will be a pleasure from now on and you will be much more creative with the wrapping as you know exactly what is available.



I hope that you enjoyed this post and feel free to comment down below if you have a specific area of organization you want me to talk about in future videos or blog posts. Remember to subscribe to my Youtube channel for weekly videos on organizing and check my out on social media. I would love to hear from you. 

Adele

Organizing your kitchen:

The kitchen is usually the hub of the house and have a tendency to clutter. Last week I decided to clean up my kitchen. Steps I followed:
1. Do small sections at a time. Otherwise you WILL loose interest.
2. Group items together, e.g. vases, tins, candle holders & candles, glass jars, cake domes & cookie jars, etc.
3. Store the items that you don't use a lot in the top cupboards. Daily items must be easy to reach. 
4. Throw away all the cracked and chipped items. Donate the items you don't use anymore.
5. Check your grocery items for expiry dates and throw away.
6. Make a list of items (crockery and cutlery) that must be replaced or added and buy the next time you go to the shops.
7. Clean your fridge on a weekly basis. Discard expired food.
8. Storage containers are very useful in the kitchen.