Today I’m going to talk you through how I organise my study/home office and basically my daily life! I’m obsessed with everything having a “home”, labelling and boxes, so it may come as no surprise that this post is going to contain boxes and lots of labels!
Let’s start with what I like to call my “family command centre” – a little wall made up of 3 whiteboards and a letter tidy is all that is needed to keep on top of weekly plans, weekly meals, birthdays, yearly plans to-do lists, appointments, letters, filing and notes!
Large Whiteboards – Link
Small Week Planner Whiteboard – Link
Letter Holder (we sprayed it with white paint) – Link
Heart Chalkboard – Link
Magnetic Pen Pot – Link
Whiteboard Markers (these aren’t your average cheap marker, love them!) – Link
The top board is used to write to-do notes and reminder papers with magnets – we’ve used this to remind us to pay the car tax, recipes we want to try, shopping lists etc.
The weekly planner is used with the multi-coloured pens to keep track of meals and plans. Date is put at the top for the week ahead and numbers below the day. Then, all plans, birthdays and appointments go in pink and meals go in blue, an example can be seen in the the first photo. If Mr Rackley and I have different plans on the same day, we add a purple line of writing for him and pink for me.
Another idea is to add different colours for each member of your family.
The bottom board has a year planner calendar on for birthdays and holidays, as well as any other plans you want to do add! This planner comes into poundland and the 99p store each year – I’ve just chopped the multi-coloured border off to make it fit the board.
The final part of this wall is this letter box and heart chalkboard. We use this to store letters and documents until we have time to file them in the filing cabinet. The chalkboard is useful for quick reminders e.g. buy birthday cards!
Now, let’s move to the desk itself!
Desk – Link
Chair – Link
iMac – Link
It may come as no surprise that the boxes, label maker, notepad and hole punch were deliberately bought in blue to match the room!
Firstly, meet my labelling buddy – the brother p-touch label maker! This brilliant little machine prints strips of labels, that you just cut and stick everywhere (Mr Rackley has even labelled boxes in his garage without me prompting!). The tapes are compatible and not genuine but I find they work just as well and are a fraction of the price!
Label Maker (the blue one isn’t on there at the moment but this is just another colour) – Link
Compatible Tapes – Link
Each box is labelled with the contents and grouped by type – e.g. all the pens together, all the markers together, all the inks together and any leftover stationary in the generic box. Means I’m never searching for a pen!
Computer inks boxed together, also seperated into two colours per box.
Whiteboard markers, highlighters and permanent markers in one box, generic stationary in another and pens and coloured fine-tip pens in another box.
These boxes I found in asda a while ago, but you can find similar in poundland, wilko, asda etc.
The other thing stored in here is my home planning binder – this contains monthly meal plans, monthly outgoings pages, bill payment checklists, grocery lists etc. But that’s a blog post all on it’s own for another day!
The final part of the study organisation is this filing cabinet!
Filing Cabinet – Link
Note the mini shredder hiding in the corner – all letters get filed or shredded if they contain personal data! You can’t be too careful these days…
Shredder – Link
Inside the filing cabinet are foolscap suspension files with more labels! These can be done on the label maker, by hand or printed and cut to fit.
Then create sections for paperwork that you have e.g. gas, electric, water, mobiles, home telephone bills, bank accounts etc. We also have sections for receipts for electrical items with guarantees e.g fridges, TV’s etc and another section for user manuals. This can be completely customised to what you need!
Paperwork is then filed into each section under the relevant heading, with the most recently dated letter/document at the front.
This way whenever you need a document, such as your latest gas bill, it will be under the heading of gas, right at the front.
Foolscap files – Link
If you don’t have space for a filing cabinet or don’t want a filing cabinet, the same can be achieved using a concertina file like this one:
Concertina File – Link
We keep records for 3 years and then shred them to make room for new ones.
Hope some of you found that useful!
Love
Mrs Rackley xx
In the draws of the grey cabinet can u put a4 paper laying down flat or are the draws to small? Thank you xx
yes they fit A4 lying flat too xx
Do your foolscap folders fit both your cabinets as I can see you have new cabinets? Thank you
Hey the same folders fit both cabinets 😃 xx
Thank you x