Organizing Mountains of Papers

I am a slob, in case anyone wonders. Some seamstresses need totally neat and tidy spaces. Not me. I can function just fine with piles and stacks all around me. Additionally, I have very little skill with organizing. I try, but I cannot for the life of me stay ahead of the clutter.

Here's proof:

The picture above was taken about 2 weeks ago. I was auditioning fabrics for blockheads, and the cutting table was an absolute fright of a mess. I have placed 4 arrows on the picture to indicate places where I had loose papers cluttering an area that was already cluttered. I am a hopeless collector of freebies from the internet and clippings from magazines. I was inundated with all these papers, and no system of keeping them organized.

I am happy to say things have changed, to a great extent, though. I bought a large box of page protectors and found a stack of empty 3-ring binders (we were both teachers and, consequently, have these in bulk quantities).  I moved to a side table and in a rare bout of systematic organizing, I tamed my massive quatities of papers.

Over the course of a few days, look at what I accomplished! Amazing! This is so unlike me!

All the items that I filed are held in plastic page protectors. I separated all into what I considered logical categories. I think I will find that this newly organized material will be easy to navigate - to find what I want when I want it. No wasting of time digging all over the place. (I have that tendency.) I am very pleased with this system! It is so out of character for me, and I am feeling quite smug at having done it!

And my table did get cleaned off, too. Cutting space on both ends has been reclaimed, and (almost) all that clutter has been put away. Whew. Now back to stitching.

Happy Quilting, Friends!