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Ask FlyLady!
Ask FlyLady is one of our favorite parts of FlyLady.net. We get so many questions sent to us everyday, that we have decided to share some of these questions and FlyLady's answers with you. You may be surprised by what she has to say! Enjoy.
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If you would like to Ask FlyLady a question, send an email to AskFlyLady@FlyLady.net with Ask FlyLady in ths subject line. Please keep in mind that only questions chosen to be posted here will be answered due to the large volume of questons submitted.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Keeping up with bills...
Dear FlyLady,
How can I keep up with my bills? I am so stressed because my office is so filled with paper clutter. When do I pay my bills?
FlyBaby in a cluttered chaotic office
Dear Friend,
A couple of the major stressors in our lives are money and paperwork. Now I can't wave a magic wand and make more money come into your bank account, but I can give you to the tools to help you handle wisely what you do have.
In our basic weekly plan we have a couple of days (no not days; just a few minutes on Wednesday and Friday) set aside to pay your bills and put together a grocery list. What you have told me is that you can't understand why you don't just pay your bills when you have the money. Well I understand why! It is called procrastination and lack of an appointed time to sit down and do them. The bills are hiding in a hot spot on the dining table or floating around in the car or heaven forbid your bottomless pit of a purse. So in order to pay a bill you have to be able to find it. Imagine that; knowing where your bills are, where your checkbook is, and how much money is in the bank, and then being able to find a stamp to mail the envelope. If
you had all of this in one place then that would be a stressor turned into a blesser.
Here is how you do this. When you bring the mail in the house; do not pile it on the dining room table. Open it up immediately; don't set it down thinking you will get to it later! Then get rid of the junk mail and put it in one place. Then when Wednesday or Friday rolls around, you will know where they are and that is one less frustrating step that you have to take to pay them.
This is why we developed the Office in a Bag. It doesn't matter what kind of zip up binder you use as long as you keep your necessary items in one place so you can find them. The beauty of using a zip up bag with a carrying strap is that it is portable. So when you have those 15 minutes at soccer practice, your lunch hour or waiting for an appointment; you have everything you need to pay your bills, plan next week's menus and a grocery list. Just look at all the stress you have relieved by putting together this little tool. Not to mention the money you have saved in late fees and over spending at the grocery store once you actually use your basic weekly plan. With menus, a grocery list in hand and a shopping trip; you will no long find yourself standing in front of your refrigerator at 6:00 pm saying, "What's for dinner?????" That is another one of the big stressors in your lives.
There is no magic wand here; it all fits together but you have to start by putting a couple of pieces in place. Imagine all the stressors in your life as a big jigsaw puzzle. When you dump the puzzle out of the box; it is a jumbled mess. Then you start by tuning over all the pieces so you can see them clearly. I think this is what our FlyLady emails and website are all about: Looking at things just a little harder and trying to figure out how it all fits together. Then you start to put the framework together, by finding all the flat sides. This is your routines, basic weekly plan, taking care of yourself, decluttering and keeping that sink shining. Before you know it; the outside frame is put together and you start filling in the various sections. Each little section is one of these stressor that play havoc with your health and life. As you put in place one little section at a time (these are the areas of your life and home that have been in CHAOS) your puzzles gets easier and easier to fill in the missing pieces. The finished puzzle is a picture of peace for your life.
I know this sounds kind of simple but it really is. If you will just start with building your framework of your simple routines (Control Journal), get dressed to shoes each morning and keep your sink shiny; then you will begin to feel a sense of accomplishment and some of your stress will go away!
To see the Office in a Bag and get an idea of what to put inside of it; go look at the photograph on the website. We all have the stuff that goes inside the bag; that is why we didn't include it with the Office in a Bag.
http://flylady.net/pages/FlyShop_OIB.asp
We have also had a lot of people wanting to know how to purchase our tools. Look for the toolbox link to the FLY Shop under FlyLady's feet on your homepage. http://flylady.net/
Last year we ran out of our calendars early in the year; this is one of our tools to help you stay on track this year. Don't allow your procrastination to keep you sidetracked this year.
- FlyLady
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Getting everything filed...
Dear FlyLady,
I'm a returning FlyBaby. I used to visit your web site, got inspired, fell off the wagon, and got back on with my sister's help last month. One of my Seemingly Insurmountable Problems is the paperwork. Getting everything filed in a timely manner. I can do the immediate sort/toss when mail comes in. I do the Tax Receipt Folder religiously. However, it's all the other papers (stuff that DOES need to be saved for the future) that becomes the piles I can't seem to master. Any ideas? Is there a part of your web site that deals with this?
Dear Friend,
You have to quit piling and start putting it where it belongs. The problem is that you probably don't have a place to put the items that you believe that you should keep.
All month we are going to deal with our paper clutter. We are going to establish a habit of dealing with our paperwork when it comes in. My Sweetie calls it the "Do it Now" Principle. Doing it now does away with do it later and piles!
Do you have a pile that is about to topple over? Set your timer for 2 minutes and go through this pile and put the paper where it belongs. Most will be trash. Put your bills in your Office in a Bag. Then go file the paper that you have been putting off putting away.
- FlyLady
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
School Papers and projects...
Dear FlyLady,
Do you have any suggestions on how to organize my six-year-old daughter's school papers and projects? I am amazed at how much paper she comes home with!
Trying to Fly in North Georgia
Dear Friend,
Paper Paper everywhere and all we want to do is organize it! When are we ever going to learn that we can't organize clutter; we can only get rid of it. I am not an unsentimental ogre but we cannot hold on to every single sheet of paper that our children bring home from school. There has to be a limit.
Here is how I feel is a good way to stay on top of the barrage of paper clutter that comes through our doors from school. Establish a wall of fame for your children. Each day the children's papers are collect in a folder. At the end of the week your child gets to pick out their favorite on of the week. That picture gets put on the wall of fame. This helps our children learn how to let go of things too. Then teach them how to address a manila envelope and send the rest of them to one of their grandparents. Then next week you put last week's paper in a notebook and display the new one. At the end of a year you have 52 papers instead of a huge overwhelming box.
Now here is the secret to having this work and not become clutter for the grandparents. You have to give them permission to recycle them after they enjoy going through them.
- FlyLady
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Easy, workable file system...
Dear FlyLady,
I'm wanting to set up a very easy, workable, file system. I don't know where to start. Some people make files for each individual thing, some alphabetically then break that down. What is your suggestion.
After reading todays inspiration, it reminded me or my own saying, "Lord, please don't take me until I get my files organized".
Thank you for your help.
FlyBaby D
Dear Friend,
The best filing system I have ever used is my trash can or my fireplace! I don't save hardly anything except for tax deductible receipts. My bank no longer gives me back my checks, so I have a three ring binder that I keep my bank statements in. It is our Office in a Bag. I also have some sheet protectors in there for other charitable gift receipts. The Office in a Bag DOES NOT come with a three ring binder; we all have these hiding in clutter. The Office in a Bag is a zipper cover for a three ring binder with pockets.
http://flylady.net/pages/FlyShop_OIB.asp They come in purple and black.
Now I do have important items like; wills, powers of attorney, living wills, birth certificates and car titles in a fire proof safe.
We save entirely too many papers.
Here is an essay I wrote on Paper Clutter
Dear Friends,
Why do we hold on to this STUFF!
I know every flat surface in your home has piles of paper on it. Do you know what these piles are made of?
It is usually junk mail! Did you know that 98% of the mail you bring in the house can be throw away. Take note next time you look at your mail.
Here is a little story that I heard on a Rita Davenport Tape series (It's Time for You) from the 1980's.
http://ritadavenport.com/products.html
A friend of hers took a 3 month leave of absence from work. When he returned to his office, his desk was piled high with his mail from the 3 months. He was blown away by it all. So he bagged it up and put it on the credenza across the room and went to all the offices and talked to his co-worker to catch up on what all had happened during his absence.
That night, the cleaning service came in and tossed the whole bag of mail in the trash. After he got over the shock of it being throw away, he finally realized that this had saved him so much time. He would have spent days or weeks going through each and every piece of mail. Most of which was not important anymore. During the next month he received a follow up letter, asking why he had not responded and one check had to be replaced. Two items in that whole big bag were all that were of any value.
Now, how many of these bags do you have stashed in your closets, how many drawers are bulging with this kind of paper clutter. This is just the unopened mail.
Now for those piles of paid bills you are saving from the first day you married. WHY! They are not tax deductable. Toss those too.
If you are in business you need to save any receipts for your expenses for 3 tax years. But that is all. I'll bet you have 20 years worth. It is time to purge these from your home.
We do not keep any of our paid bills, except the ones that can be deducted on our taxes. Which is zero. We do save your payroll check stubs. When was the last time you did not get credit for something you paid by check. Now if you pay with cash, you need to save your receipts until you get your next statement to make sure that you got credit and then you can toss it.
There is no telling what is your piles or black bags stashed under your beds. What I do know is that this kind of clutter is killing you. The guilt is tearing your soul apart. This has got to end.
I really don't want you to go through these bags, but I know that you can not do this. If you can toss them without looking in them, I will find a way to reward you. I have a plan. Get a box, one of those paper boxes that reams of paper come in or a bankers box or a milk crate. Also get a trash can. If you have a fire place or wood stove then sit beside it and start burning or if you have a shredder, start shredding and donate the paper shreds to your animal shelter. As you go through each bag or drawer, toss all the trash and don't try to file this stuff, that will come later when you have a desk day. Just put it in the box. If someone asks you for something, you can honestly say, it is here somewhere.
As you go through this stuff you are going to feel really bad and try to beat yourself up for not taking care of some of these things. Promise me that you will under your breath ask for forgiveness and release it. Promise yourself that this will never happen again.
Do not try to do every bag at one time. This will be too much. Do a bag a week. You are going to find that once you quit hiding from all of this, you will have more respect for your money and your home. With this respect, you are going to find money, gift certificates, bonds, and probably some cash. LOL Suze Orman's books teach us that when we respect our finances, we will bring more money into our lives. Just watch and see what happens.
I am so proud of you for wanting to tackle this paper clutter monster. Eventually you will have it tamed and you will deal with it in a timely manner. Daily, biweekly, bimonthly, and monthly. No more waiting till January to get things ready for your taxes. It will already be done.
If you have not read Suze Orman's Books, 9 steps to Financial Freedom and the Courage to be Rich. Do so soon. She helped me to see that my clutter was making me poor! In spirit and Poor in Money!
- FlyLady
Monday, September 1, 2008
Paper Clutter...
Dear FlyLady,
I know that I have seen this addressed somewhere (perhaps a while back), but I can't find the info now.
What do you do with Paper Clutter? What do you keep, what do you toss? It keeps coming and piling in - I am really good about dealing with the mail (most of it goes in recycling), but what about keeping old bills, bank statements, warranties, instruction manuals, invoices, committee minutes, etc.? (you get the idea!)
Thanks so much for your help! I've been off and on with the e-mail reminders, but I'm always putting FlyLady principles into practice. They have truly been a God-send!
Blessings,
FlyMummy of 3
Abbotsford, BC
Dear Friend,
Let's talk about our paper clutter!!
You all have it, so let's see exactly what it amounts to.
1. Piles of newspapers.
2. Baskets of unread Magazines
3. Junk mail
4. Boxes of old school papers(from college or kids papers)
5. Recipes
6. Paperback books.
7. Piles of unopened mail
8. Tax papers
9. medical records
10. Paid bills receipts.
11. Old Phone books.
12. CATALOGS
13. Bank statements
14. File Cabinets full of who knows what!
15. Family pictures
16. Birth Certificates.
17. Purses full of STUFF
18. Maps
19. Travel Brochures
20. Organizational Books
21. Computer printouts from FlyLady email and other websites
22. 3X5 cards
23. Other office supplies we are addicted to. File folders, dividers.
I could go on and on. You know that I am right about what is in your boxes, piles and drawers.
Lets look at each area of clutter one at a time!
1. Piles of newspapers.
Did you know that by the time you get around to reading a day old newspaper that you would have heard most of it on the radio or TV.
Instead of holding on to them so you can read when you get a chance, discard every day when the next paper comes. If you go two or three days without reading, save yourself some money discontinue these newspapers. You will be rid of the clutter and the guilt from not reading what you have paid good money for. Try reading on-line or listening to the Radio. You will be surprised at how much news you pick up without even having to concentrate. I never read a newspaper, except to see if I have been quoted correctly.
Now for those coupons that come in the newspapers. If you haven't used them then why buy the paper. For SHEs coupons are a challenge. But once you get organized, you will use your Wednesday desk day to clip and save, while you make out your grocery list. For now, set the aside or give them to someone you know that will use them. The guilt you feel when you see these unused coupons or go to the grocery without them is not worth a dime. I want you happy not guilt ridden.
2. Baskets of unread Magazines: This is a biggy for every SHE I know and love. We hate to part with our beloved magazines. We might actually need something we have seen or we might miss a good article. If we have seen something in a magazine, just go and try to find it again. You can see it in your minds eye, but there is no way you are ever going to find the magazine you saw it in. Without a Readers Guide, you are hopelessly lost. So why waste hours searching for a picture, when you can go on-line and find your answer if you really need. it. If you receive magazines in the mail and you never open and read, then rethink this money you are spending each year on the subscription. If you have a basket of magazines that you hate to
part with, it is easier if you do it on a weekly basis. This is why I purge magazines each week. I put them in my car and as I go about my week, I drop them off in different places that I go to. Meetings, Doctor's offices, car services centers, court houses, offices. Just think about having to wait in a waiting room with 5 year old magazines. How about getting your car worked on and there are only men's magazines. This is why I take the opportunity to get them out of my home and put them where they will be appreciated.
Also If I have not read them, I take the time to do this before I leave them in the waiting rooms.
One other thing I do, I have an exacto knife by my chair and a notebook with lots of sheet protectors. If I see an article that I want to keep or a picture for my want book, then I cut it out right then and there. It is my magazine. No one will miss it if I give it away. I have my book of my "likes and keeps" without having to spend hours searching for a certain magazine. I used this notebook when we remodeled our kitchen. I can toss out this book because I have completed that dream. No need to hold on to it any more. I have a garden book too.
3. Junk mail: Throw it away as soon as it comes in the house. It does not even deserve the right to enter your home. Throw it away or shred them. Be careful with those credit card applications we get daily in the mail. Tear out the name and numbers.
4. Boxes of old school papers(from college or kids papers):Do you still have a box full of papers from High school or college? Get rid of this stuff. It was another life. You are not going to need this stuff, the books or the papers with those grades. We had rather not remember.
Now for your children's papers. These are hard to part with, but let your children decide. If your children are grown, Give them back to them. Or save only a special one from each year for their scrapbook. Not every paper is a keepsake, believe it or not. If you save everything, that diminishes the value of those special ones. They get lost in the clutter.
5. Recipes: We SHEs are addicted to cookbooks and recipes. But how often do we use them. We dream of being this wonderful cook, but the truth is we cook the same ole things all the time. What happens when you want to find a recipe you saw in some magazine or some cookbook in your library or drawer of recipes. You can't find it! I have reduced the number of cookbooks that I have. Only the ones I love have I kept. Also my Sweet Darling is a wonderful cookie baker. He has his very own cookbooks. I had to be very careful when decluttered our cookbooks. I accidently took his favorite cookie cookbook with adjustments for years of testing to the truck to be given away. I was lucky, he missed it and I had not taken them to the Humane Society Thrift Shop. So as you clear this clutter, make sure they are yours to give away.
6. Paperback books. If you have read them, pass them on to someone else. Give them to the library.
7. Piles of unopened mail: If you have not opened it in three months, then it is probably trash any way. Open the newest mail first and toss the old bills. Sometimes you can just look at the date and toss. Sort it over a trash can.
8. Tax papers: Do you have tax papers from 20 years ago? If so there is no need to keep these things. Our tax papers fit in one manilla envelope. Our copies of the tax returns and receipts, and directions for the schedules are all in this envelope. This takes no room at all. We also have a file for receipts that effect the cost basis of our home. This is all that we keep. We do have 20 years worth, but they only take up 5 inches in a file drawer. Each envelope is labeled. Our bank statements come with photocopies of our cancelled checks; they are hole punched and fit easily in a binder. We also keep our check registers. Our Check registers tell our history if needed too.
9. Medical records: Children's shot records are needed until they start college and sometime up until the girls become wives and mothers, to prove that they have had the rubella shot. Health dept. have been know to purge records without contacting you. This happened to me and I had to have another shot. Not fun. I don't like them.
10. Paid bills receipts. We only keep insurance receipts and tax deductible receipts. Since our bank statements and check are photocopied and they don't take up much room. If you have a home based business and you deduct your utility bills on your taxes; you need to keep up with them. The IRS recommends keeping these records for 3 years. Here is a link for checking on record keeping. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98575,00.html
11. Old Phone books. Get rid of these. I keep one old one in my car for when I need a phone number or address.
12. CATALOGS: We all have these. We love to look at them. They keep coming every day. Get rid of them. If you want to order something then do it and toss the catalog. There are many on-line catalogs. Don't hold on to these.
13. Bank statements: It is so easy to keep them now since we have photocopies of our checks. The statements fit in a notebook.
14. File Cabinets full of who knows what! We need to go through these files, and toss. There is hardly anything that we really need to file. The Trash can is my favorite filing cabinet. In our perfectionism we want to keep everything. Not everything needs to be kept.
15. Family pictures: This is a problem we all have. Some people have drawers full of pictures that are unlabeled. We have all seen old pictures in our mother's homes that we could not identify. This is so sad. My Mom did one thing that was very nice. She had a scrapbook for each of our family members. With our history in it. Newspaper pictures, snapshots, school picture and report cards.
16. Birth Certificates/Marriage Cerificate/Passports/Death Certificates/Divorce papers/adoption papers. These all need to be protected in a fire proof safe or a bank lock box. Make copies to keep at home, so you will have them when you need them, but keep the originals in a safe place. A place to keep them at home: In a notebook with sheet protector or in a file labeled Important Family Records. Also savings bonds need to be keep in a lock box too.
17. Purses full of STUFF: Each week clean out your purse. Most of what is in there is trash. You might even find some money. I clean out my purse on Fridays.
18. Maps: You have old maps in your car that are from the 80's. Did you know that they are just about ready to fall apart. Get rid of them. Buy you a new one for your state.
19. Travel Brochures: We have all these places we want to go, but the brochures are 10 years old. Get rid of them the prices are out dated as well as the phone numbers. Make a list of the place you would like to see and look them up on the internet.
20. Organizational Books: This is one of your first homework assignments. Put your Organizational books away. There is no way you can follow several programs at one time. Pick one and stick to it. If you choose my messages then put the other things away, even the 3X5 card files that Pam and Peggy developed in the 70's. Even their messages have evolved into routines, zones, and a basic weekly plan. They endorse my way of teaching their system. We are so blessed to have them as mentors. A hound dog can not catch 8 rabbits at one time, she has to pick one and stay focused.
21. Computer printouts from FlyLady email and other websites: Don't print, file it in the computer. Delete all my emails; I will send them out again.
22. 3X5 cards: If you have old card files, throw them away. They seem to lay a big guilt trip on us for setting them up and not doing them. Purge these from your home. Set up your routines with them and toss them. This is what I did. Sorted and put them in doing order. Then they were history. Pam and Peggy will tell you this too and have many times. Do not let guilt eat you alive.
23. Other office supplies we are addicted to. File folders, dividers. We all have lots of this stuff. I have one drawer for my office supplies. This takes up part of one of my empty drawers in my filing cabinet.
You all have been asking for Paperwork clutter problem solutions. I hope I have touched on this subject. Keep in mind that these problems are not going to get fixed over night, but you can stop them from piling up, by dealing with your mail as soon as it comes into your home, throwing away the trash and only keeping what you will need. Toss the rest.
- FlyLady
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