Organizing Piles of Paper | DIY

Happy Birthday to The Creative Mama and thanks to Angie (the ultimate Creative Mama) for organizing such a fabulous giveaway week! : )

Welcome to Monday, Lovelies! I thought I’d share with you today a project I just recently did at my home. My ultimate goal in our home is to give everything a place and keep things simple. I have found that when that happens there is loads more room for just living life. (Who wants to spend time sorting through everything to get to the one thing you’re after OR spending precious free time looking for that one thing that’s gone missing?!)

But, I’ve had a problem figuring out how to do this with our stuff that is always piling up to the left of our sink. You know the type of stuff you need to be right under your nose or else you’ll forget about it? The grocery lists and bills to be paid. The to-do lists and random “don’t forget” notes. The date reminders and miscellaneous coupons. Yes, all of those things are what keeps my countertop (with which I don’t have much of!) looking like this …

I try my hardest to keep it all neat and organized, in orderly piles, but still it simply drives me crazy. Until now …

I had this stroke of brilliance (these only come about once a year so I knew I had to act on it!) to get mini-clipboards and hang them on the wall to keep everything organized. I didn’t even know at the time if mini-clipboards existed and was thrilled that upon Googling them I not only found that they did, but also stumbled upon this brilliant little blog that showed how to turn boring clipboards into customized ones!

And, that’s exactly what I did. With 3 mini-clipboards (bought at Staples for $1.25 each), 3 pieces of scrapbooking paper and a little mod podge I was able to create an area in our kitchen that works better than our countertop ever could.

How fantastic! I bought the little notepads also at Staples and used the cardboard looking paper wrapping that came with them to make the little tags on my clipboards. Notes. Dates. To Buy. The metal bin I bought at an antique store. It is perfect for storing mail when it’s brought through the door. And, the C was a gift from a friend (it’s just metal with pearl beads wrapped around it).

The calendar I created myself in Photoshop. If you guys would like to do something similar I have included the template here. Simply click, download, print, cut and enjoy!

Cheers to simplifying!