Disclosure: I participated in a campaign on behalf of
(#MC) for Fellowes. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

Organization is something that I tend to struggle with all year round. I start off really well for the beginning of the year and then towards May-ish, I start to fall off the organization wagon. I straggle behind the remainder of the month and then starting in September-ish, I try to catch up and have the best of intentions for next year.

This year is no different. Well, sort of.

This year, rather than try to catch up with just a year’s worth of organizing issues, we are also catching up with 7 years worth of organizing issues!

That is my garage.

This is an accumulation of hubby’s 29 years worth of belongings and my 30 years worth of belongings meshed into one happy family and then packed up and moved five times without being unpacked.

Slowly, but surely, I have been working on the organization and have been living by these tips:

Assign everyone their own space.

In Storage.


Each of us have our own tub in the garage for storage of things we want to hold on to, but don’t necessarily need in the home. For me, that is majority of my Betty Boop collection, notes from friends from junior high, etc. For the kids, it’s cards from holidays that I’ve held on to for them and school papers.

In the Home.


At the desk, each kid has a box where all of their school papers for the year goes. At the end of the year, we sort through them and keep what we want and recycle what we don’t want. Additionally, daddy has two mail slots for his stuff, mommy has two mail slots for her stuff, and there is a mail slot for each kid with important school papers that mommy needs to keep track of (school fliers for early release, conferences, etc.)

Utilize a Filing System.

We have a filing system – a filing cabinet. We keep track of any important papers. Some of our current tabs include car information, pay stubs, medical insurance information, car insurance information, wedding ring information, tax information, and school information.

Additionally, I will be adding a blogging system as well that will include expenses and income.

Utilize the filing system for what works best for your needs and your family needs.

Get Rid of What You Don’t Need.

Growing up I was called a pack rat and I guess you can say that is true. I have a hard time letting go of things, but now that we are a family of 5, I have been ridding our home of things we no longer need.

I have come across things that for safety reasons, cannot be just tossed in the garbage or recycled, they need to be shredded.

Lucky for us, we recently received a
63Cb Shredder to help get rid of the important papers.

Important papers to shred include (but may not be limited to):

• Anything with any identifying information (date of birth, address, social security number, etc.)
• Anything with account information (bank account, credit card statements, payroll, etc.)
• Credit cards that you are no longer using. (I personally shred credit card offers as well to prevent someone trying to get a credit card in my name.)
• Tax information and returns.
• Investment records and statements.
• Receipts (most important if they have your signature on it!).
• Utility bills (after paid obviously!)
• Pictures.
• Anything with your signature on it.
• Anything with passwords on it.
• Old photo IDs (or anything that is older that can identify you or be taken to steal your identity).

The
63Cb Shredder is a great household shredder for various reasons:

1. It is a cross cut shredder which destroys a single sheet of paper into 302 particles. It is recommended by the “professionals” that you get a cross cut shredder versus a single line shredder.
2. It has SafeSense technology that will automatically disable the shredder when hands touch the paper opening (because we know kids love to put their hands where they don’t belong!)
3. It has Jam Blocker technology that prevents overfeeding and prevents jams from occurring.
4. It has an energy saving system.

Check out my video review (and don’t laugh! This is my first ever video anything!)

Find more information or browse their website at

can help you pick the perfect shredder for your needs: