Tag: office

Cleaning and Organizing – Office – Paperwork Part One

On By jackiblosblackisIn House, OrganizationLeave a comment

Something that has been stopping me in my office and causing me grief has been my personal paperwork. I did not have a place to put these things and the piles were everywhere. Literally everywhere in the house. One day I said ‘screw it’ and went out to purchase whatever filing cabinet I could from the local Staples.

Now the first place I started was mine and Mister’s tax returns. I did have them in another place but I wanted to put them in the filing cabinet. The reason I opted to move these first was because I knew there were NOA and what not mixed up in these piles and they needed to go with their corresponding year. In the above picture are the folders I had my taxes organized in up until 2015 I believe.

The entire bottom drawer is taxes and nearly full. I did not have tabs at this point so I just marked all of the hanging folder with whatever stickies I could locate. I also did not have folders (the ones I have in my office are for clients).

This lid did not contain much but I started with this box and moved onto the sorter that is on top of my desk (no picture). Which was stuffed full!

This basket was also over flowing with paperwork. As you can see though I had emptied it. I started putting my manuals here.

This ended up being my pile of recycling.

This is also where I stopped. I ran out of hanging folders and needed someone to pick me up more the next day. I was completely beside myself on the fact that I used an entire box of hanging folders and I was not done yet.

I did work on emptying out the desk the night after. Why I only took pictures of two out of three drawers I have no idea. But they were all full. I also want to get the desk out of the way. I am repainting it and using it as my vanity. Plus, it was just simply in the way. I cleaned off the desk top and emptied out the drawers. Desk was moved out to the shed in the mean time.

Now at this point my basket of manuals has grown ha-ha. Before you say I can get these online. I am aware of that but I honesty like having them immediately on hand.

In the end I got tabs for the folders. I also got folder to micro-organize.

I know it is not very exciting for photos and I am getting this together so that you can also watch a video of it if that is your thing. Despite all that though it was so weight-lifting to be able to put such a big aspect of my life a way. I do even now still have to go through the manuals and I have a few more piles that have accumulated since this was done.

I want to add about my office that  I do not take very many pictures in here because I also work from home and those things do not need to be shared. So, even if I am making progress I may not be able to document it.

Goal Update – 1st Quarter

On By jackiblosblackisIn Personal1 Comment

Things have been crazy for the first half of the year. Things were going to happen and then things did not happen. As I did last year though, I am doing updates through out the year of things I wanted accomplished this year. You can check out the post which tells us what happened in 2016 and what I am going after in 2017 here. So lets look at where we have made it so far!

  • I have to quit smoking again :(. This time it will stick though because of surprise reasons.

This hasn’t happened yet, I have a date though.

  • Moving back to the small town.
  • Than buying a place in said small town.

These two go hand in hand now actually. There was a place we were going to move into for a time being but things fell through. It was for the better anyways.

  • Dealing more with clients in the office.

It is tax time so I have not had much contact with anyone really. Things are a little different from last year though.

  • Making sure things stay caught up in the office. Keeping the new procedures in place.

We are not quite there yet. This has become more important than ever though.

  • Having my debt cut in 1/2 from what it was at the beginning of 2017.

Here is the big one. Now I have not and will not post amounts of monies owing for obvious privacy reasons. It was not the biggest amounts but when you live pay cheque to pay cheque it makes quite the deal on a budget. I was able to go back and check what I owed on one of the debts in the beginning of the year. Two debts have been paid off as of March 2017.

At the end of the first quarter I have paid off exactly one third! Give or take a couple dollars of course. This means having the half paid off is very close. I chose only a half because sometimes things happen and changes need to be made. I have had to alter my payment plan and expectations more times than I want to admit. I will do a full post on this in the near future.

  • Staying on top of the blog.

Clearly this has fallen behind. No need to go into it any further.

  • Keeping my time and life organized.

I did try to start working on this but tax season happened. This has become even more important now. I just need to find my own personal system that works for me.

If I am going to be honest things with the blog are going to change a little. It will still be a personal blog but with new topics. I have said that before in the past and I still have my heart set on previous series. Things cannot be forced when it is not their time.

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Tax Season is Over; Back to Life

On By jackiblosblackisIn Family, Galaxy, PersonalLeave a comment

About a week ago here I had started a post saying I would be back after tax season. While it has not officially ended (tax law(s), due date(s), and anything involving taxes is never really just simple) our rush seems to be over. So, while I have some stuff to get done before I am regularly back here I am confident enough to say expect it ha-ha.

Before tax season got going for us (these are not super long hours, FYI, but it is very mentally draining) Effie was moving up here, I had a blog schedule made up for the next four – five months, and I kind of felt like I could make things happen. Starting with the blog schedule I apperantly felt I could start it off during my busy season and that clearly did not work out. I will be looking at creating a new one…once I find the one I previously created.

Now Effie did move up here, for about 5 weeks. I will not be going in to detail with this because there really is no need to. With that being said other things are going on in my personal life though it will be a bit before I decide to post anything on that. There are some ‘concerns’ to say the least. That may not be the right word to use but things have just been up and down in that area.

I have not lost hope on making things happen. I will be making things happen one way or another. I do not think I will be trying the roommate thing again or not anytime soon. I worries when I leave my dogs with other people. While it is not their job to watch them it is also not fair to kennel them when someone else is in the house. Or to have strangers always coming in and out of the house as Galaxy is a guardian breed and will take her job seriously. My pay type has been switched (not my wage, kind of) which means that I will be able to budget things much better and have things paid off (in more time than my original plan though). The catch to that is I have been taking on more things around the office.

I do not really go into work here anymore. I actually think I have not done that for almost a year now. It had nothing to do with breaching confidentiality since I would never disclose any of that kind of information. I would like to bring in budgeting, bookkeeping, and even tax information (for Canada) in the future. I just do not think I am at that point yet. Something that will take much planning to get started.

While this was quite the post, I need to be going and I am hoping to have things back up and running next week. Not sure where I am going to start but I will get it figured out.