Recently, I was seated at my desk, riffling through piles of papers looking for an significant document. My method of leaving important things on the top of a pile clearly wasn’t working, because I invariably put more papers on top of them. I looked at the mess and knew I needed to organize my papers.
So, this is what I came up with. I placed a wastebasket in front of my desk and swept everything into it with my hand – whoosh!
No, seriously, I sorted my stuff and tossed out expired coupons, junk mail, etc. Then I filed paid bills in a file drawer, using folders labeled with the creditors’ names. What to do with the rest, though? I needed a way to keep important things like new bills, concert tickets, good coupons and the like in front of me so they wouldn’t get buried in the future.
I saw a package someone gave me as a gift recently, and a light bulb went off in my head – “Put up your Fingers!” Inspired, I put a Finger on the wall over my desk for each item I needed to keep handy; one for tickets, one for new bills, another for the Yankees’ schedule, one for mail I need to answer, another for my stamp booklet, etc. I ordered them in rows according to the size of the items I slipped under each Finger. What joy! At last, my desk was truly organized!
Then I thought, “The Finger could help me all around the house!” I put a clear one on a kitchen cabinet to hold recipes when I cook – no more getting greasy fingerprints on the recipe, or dropping it in the sauce! I stuck a few on the refrigerator to hold the menu for the pizza place and the kids’ latest artwork from school. On the inside of a cabinet door I used Fingers to hold packets of dip mix, etc. to keep them from getting lost and squashed among the cans.
I was on an organizational roll! Next, I put The Finger on the back of the medicine cabinet door in each bathroom to hold a first aid leaflet for quick reference. Here’s another idea for your medicine cabinet: keep the boxes all those tubes of ointments and liniments come in, and store the tubes in their boxes. It’s much easier to stack the boxes on the shelf than to try to keep the tubes from sliding around and falling out.
Moving on to the cellar and the garage, I stuck The Finger on the wall over the workbenches to hold copies of the first aid brochure, and made sure there was a well-stocked first aid kit nearby. I put another Finger on the wall next to the circuit breaker box, and slipped a copy of the list of breakers and the circuits they control under it.
I realized The Finger was the solution to another perplexing tidiness problem – what to do with my scarves and chains. Our arduous wintertime scarves are rolled up and stored in a shoebag on the back of the door to the coat closet, but the thin, light accessory scarves were a problem. By sticking a Finger to the back of a bedroom closet door, with the adhesive material end down, it becomes a hook – you can hang a light scarf over it. The Finger can also hold a light necklace or chain the same way. I attached several rows of Fingers to the closet door, and – Voila! - all my favorite scarves and chains were organized, ready to grab and go.
I had one Finger left. When I sat down at my computer, it dawned on me that The Finger could hold papers for computer work. I attached the last Finger to the computer desk, and put my clunky copy stand in a drawer (in case I need it to hold a book I’m using). A thrill of satisfaction came over me. By putting up my Fingers, my house and my life now are better organized!