DEAR DESIGNER

Dear Readers, we have our first Dear Designer question and it's a great one.

Dear Designer, My kitchen is command central for my home..... school papers, bills, mags, etc. end up on my LARGE kitchen island. I spent 15 minutes de-cluttering, resulting in a clean island with organized piles to deal with later. I created a notebook for each child's school papers and art.

I need a hidden solution for filing papers close to the source....I can allocate a cabinet or a space for a file system, but I don't want it to look yucky. Any thoughts?

I am not alone here, this is a challenge for all busy households to stay on top of the paper and decrease the clutter in our lives. Any ideas for stylish solutions for keeping control of all the household (and home based biz) stuff? Papers, mostly.

Sandra Lynnfield, MA


Well, Sandra, I have a few solutions practical and good-looking. You have already made some headway. It is the "deal with later" part that we all have to attend. Here are some tips:

• Think green and think color.
  
• Do not even open mail unless it is over the recyclers .
• Tell catalogue advertisers to direct ads to your email or stop them altogether.
  
• These next words have changed my desk forever: paperless billing. It makes that part of every one's lives far simpler.
• Home finance organizers like Quicken make it easy to run your home accounting like the pros. Call your bank to set you up with auto-pay.
  
• Still, certain papers need to be at our fingertips. Set up files in a portable tickler with sixteen folders, one for each week of the month and each month of the year. I keep things moving from week to week and month to month. They are always current and not in a tumbling pile.
  
• The kids stuff in notebooks sounds great. Try a colorful accordion folder for each school year.
  
• Ultimately, it is where you store it all which like most personal stuff I feel should be, "behind closed doors". If a desk with cabinets above or a closet you can outfit is not available, try painting a big old consignment-shop china cabinet or hutch in a bright color that compliments your kitchen.
  
• Make it bold and contemporary by giving it a glossy kitchen-color paint job in hot pink, super yellow or bright white? If it has glass, you can curtain it for a more traditional look, or frost glass using film or a home frosting kit for an updated feel.
  
• Light makes might. Brighten the area with natural or artificial light any way you can to keep things easy to read and on some level fun for you to stay organized,

I will always remember my friend Richard P and his adage taken from his old CEO boss, "Look good and keep moving"


Cheers,

MV