Where to Start?

One of our most received FAQ's is 'Where to Start?' 

Our number one answer is: paper!  

Whether you're a home owner or entrepreneur paper seems to always be coming into our spaces.

I don't know about you but I HATE moving piles off the counter and table tops. It seems piles of mail, school work, to-do lists, etc. endlessly grow and multiply.  

Let's give all those incoming papers a 'home' with a drop zone container. We want to put this option in a common space (kitchen table, countertop, entrance table...). Be sure to talk  with the whole home team and mark the box 'papers'.  Any incoming paper items will go into this box and once a week you'll schedule time for processing.  Now,  people will forget to put things into the box and occasionally a week of processing will be missed but this is the start in a journey.  We'll encourage the team to keep putting papers in their new 'home' and work to be consistent in processing! Once this drop zone container is in place, you won't have piles and piles overwhelming flat surfaces.  And when you need to find 'that one paper' you'll know exactly where to look.

Since this is a compromised system (for the whole home team) we want to setup for the simplest organizer, leaning toward a macro, visual system. Over time you may consider adding files to the box marked 'action', 'to file', 'school', etc., these are just a few macro categories to consider.  

Each week you'll process the papers within this temporary 'home'. During that process you'll shred or file into more permanent homes.  

Next month we'll talk more about those permanent homes and how to create filing systems for each style. 

Stay Hopeful & be sure to use #hopefulsimplicity when sharing your Hopeful journey wins!