Nesting much? about paperwork...

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Yes, I am 34 weeks preggo this week and super duper nesting.

As in, Scott keeps laughing at the things I say I (we) need to get done before baby comes!

He thinks I'm crazy.

And I think they're non-negotiable :)

Some of my list includes:

-organizing our garage (this has been our catch-all since moving in November)

-organizing all of our files, bills, paperwork

-organizing the boys' closet

-pulling out all the newborn stuff to get it ready

-buying an SUV or van...ok, not going to happen in the next 6 weeks...but we don't know how we'll fit 2 car seats in our back seat   : / 

-practicing our pregnancy relaxation and exercises together

-re-reading my favorite breast-feeding book and Babywise

-organizing my linen closet

-getting Scott to organize his books in his office now that he's getting settled into having just 1 job, yay!

-organizing my desk area (just moved my desk from our huge hall closet down stairs up to Scott's office)

-enjoying one on one time with "my Lijah" ;)

-getting a couple of dates in without kiddos with us (it's likely we'll have the newborn with us for a few months if we do get some dates after he's born)

Soooo, thankfully I do have energy at this stage in my pregnancy...and the drive to get these things done.

My back, on the other hand, only likes me to be up and doing so much at a time.  So, I do need to remind myself to sit and rest at times.

But I did tackle our paperwork this weekend!

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It has not been in the best shape since we moved from California.  It was definitely usable, but we were holding onto too much paperwork that we didn't need because I wasn't sure what was ok to toss (shred, really) and what we had to keep.

Then there's always those random things that are in their own category of paperwork that you want to hold onto...in my mind those are special birthday cards, ticket stubs from special events, etc.  that I don't know what exactly to do with since I am not scrapbooking anymore.  Thoughts on that?

Right now I have my own little basket where I keep special things on my bottom shelf of my nightstand, and I'm going to start a box for Scott and each of the boys.

It was so nice to have 2 big chunks of time to knock out our paperwork yesterday.
I started during Eli's afternoon nap and finished after we got home from a party last night since Scott was out with some guys anyway.

I pulled out all of the files and first went through each one and tossed anything we didn't need.
I used this to guide me on what to keep and toss.

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Are you wondering why I didn't take photos of any of our actual mess and filing?

Well, I can't stand to waste the 10 minutes to go get my camera and get a few pictures, I usually just want to get going on fixing the mess!

Next, I wrote a list of our major areas of paperwork:

-Scott's bike info (receipts of components bought, maintenance, etc)

-Family: important documents

-Insurance: Auto, Health, Life, Renters

    -Each of us have our own full file of health insurance which I broke down further:

         -Scott: Insurance documents, Treatment (going to dr or urgent care, etc), Vision and Dental

        (I love this, so if I need to see what immunizations we have, or when we had that visit to urgent care, it is really really easy to find)

-School: transcripts, loan information, etc

-Vehicle: Registration, repairs, maintenance

-there are a few more, but this is the idea

So, each main area is in a hanging file and the sub-categories are in manila folders inside of that.

(i.e.  Auto Insurance has a manila folder for each company we've been with...lots because of all of our moving.  As well as an area for claims we've had)

The way I organize anything in our house is usually according to this method.  I break things up into general categories, then I break those categories into more specific groups and organize those things according to space and usability.

Here are some great links I liked when I was deciding how to go about this:

-Martha Stewart

-Jenna Sue Design

Also, are you struggling in a season of a lot to do and no energy or time to do it?  Read this instead!