I'm on a purging, reorganizing, and redecorating kick. I've been at it in fits and starts for a while, but still I'm spending a good part of every weekend getting SOMETHING done.
Standing in my kitchen, holding a piece of paper not nearly as important as a birth certificate, but something I knew I ought to keep -- a flyer full of info from my garbage collector -- my urge was to put it on the refrigerator.
But another of my goals is to stop loading up the fridge with paper. I saw a great idea on HGTV's Mission Organization a week or so ago: attaching thin metal magnet boards inside kitchen cabinets for this kind of stuff. I forget what the woman used, but I think a piece of flashing might do the job if it's made of the stuff that magnets love. But that's for another day.
Today my problem was the garbage flyer and I was stumped. To make matters worse, it sat outside for a few days and is weathered and dirty. If I put its dirty self in a file folder, I'd forget all about it, defeating the purpose of saving it.
And then I thought about putting it "on" the computer.
I created a folder for my desktop, labeled it "Virtual Refrigerator," scanned the flyer, put the scan in the folder, and threw the original away.
Problem solved. The folder will be in my face all the time, just like the front of the fridge is. Going forward I'll scan all those things that fall into that "refrigerator" category, and I'll look at the Virtual Refrigerator at least once a week to see if I still need the stuff that's in there. And I'll know where that kind of thing is.
Best part? I have a big hard drive. It'll never get too cluttered.
Why didn't I think of this sooner?
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4 comments:
Virtual Refrigerator - how clever! I didn't think of that one. I decided to have a notebook with the clear plastic protector sleeves to put such things in... and have another section of it for warranties and instructions for various appliances.
I'm considering another folder for owner's manuals. Some of them are online in PDF form. Others I could scan. This could change my poor cluttered life.
Three more things went "on" the virtual fridge later that day. Three things that had just been lying around because I didn't know what else to do with them. Ta-da!
Virtual, eh? (spoken in deep Homer Simpson voice)
That's almost sinister, it's so smart. Just don't rely on a scanned manual for the computer if the computer needs repair!
I am reminded of predictions of the paperless office from way back when. This could actually work, though.
I am so impressed! I'm going to have to do that.
At one time, my answering machine had the following announcement (which I stole from Reader's Digest):
"The answering machine is broken.
This is the refrigerator. Please dictate your message slowly and clearly and I will write it on a Post-It note and stick it on myself."
I, also, watch Mission Organization. They do such clever things.
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