• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

  • Home
  • About
    • Start Here
    • FAQs
    • Contact
    • Disclosure
  • Food
    • Mains
    • Desserts
    • Cakes & Biscuits
    • Jams & Preserves
    • Snacks & Treats
    • Drinks
    • Food Hacks
    • Recipe List
  • Simple Living
    • Organisation
  • Garden
  • Country Life
  • Family Time
    • Kid Wrangling
  • DIY
    • Farm House
    • Crochet
    • Christmas

Kicking A Holiday Goal – Sorting Paperwork Clutter

One of the things I find about trying to live simply and clutter free, is that it takes constant work. You never get to a point where everything is done. I’m actually OK with this fact. Things come into the house. Situations change, and things that were once useful, are no longer needed. The only problem is that day to day, I don’t get to go through of our entire house a cull, so during each school holidays I try to set a few goals. A few extra tasks over and above the everyday things so that the house stays organised and free(ish) of clutter.

These holidays I’ve had on my list to go through the kids craft stuff, dress up clothes, as well as going through our filing cabinet and clear out the years random paperwork that had accumulated. I had gone through some of the paper work when I was on maternity leave after having Toby, but as he is about to turn five, you can probably imagine how much superfluous stuff there was in those drawers.

IMG_4518

I kid you not. I found the instruction manuals for our first mobile phones that we bought in 2000 (remember the Nokia 5110 and the snake game?), instruction manuals and receipts for baby equipment bought when Hannah was a baby (and now passed on to family and friends), payslips from  2009, and paperwork for a car we sold in 2010. There was paperwork in there, that should never have been kept in the first place.

In all, I culled close to a full drawer of unneeded paperwork. As I worked I sorted the unwanted paper into two piles. The first was full of paper without personal details: instructions booklets and the like. I put these straight into the recycling bin. The second pile contained papers with personal details. They will be our fire starters next time we have a bonfire.

At the same time I re-organised the files to better suit our needs. I removed superfluous files (we don’t get water bills anymore because we are on tank water), and created new ones to help keep the paperwork we do need, in better order.

In the five years since I last did a bit of a sort out, lots of things have changed. We now get a lot of our bills and paper work emailed to us rather than having a paper copy (which I much prefer). Also I have worked out that we really do not need to keep half the stuff we had. Stuff for tax, and to do with insurance etc we absolutely need, but instruction booklets for small items, receipt from piano lessons, we need to just get rid of straight away. My hope is now that it has been sorted properly, we will find it easier to keep tidy, and will be more ruthless about what we do keep. I will let you know how it goes!

So we are only a few days into the school holidays, and I’ve already kicked a goal…. and I’m feeling pretty pleased about it too!

Do you set holiday goals? Are you terrible at dealing with paperwork or are you a bit of a ninja? Do you remember the 5110?

Let everyone know:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit

You should also check out...

Previous Post: « Hot Desserts For Cold Nights
Next Post: Crumbly Lemon Slice »

Reader Interactions

Have your say... Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Search

Browse by month

INSTAGRAM

A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

Newsletter

Popular Posts

{Recipe} Spiced Plum Paste
Pickled Cucumbers
Pumpkin Fruit Cake
Home Made Ginger Beer
Honey Spice Biscuits
Roasted Cauliflower and Potato Salad

Categories

Footer

Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress