Setting up for the new year continues

I am excited for all the new plans I have for the new year.  I think all the changes will really help me stay organized and get more done.  Why am I waiting till the new year?  Because I wanted to give myself a chance to test out the new ideas to see if they will work and adapt them if necessary.  Today I am going to share with you two new systems under way.  The first is I finally (somewhat) organized the coupons.  That will be in my next post.  Also, I got a new desktop organizer and have finally decided how to use it.

Here is the view from the front.

Here is the view from the side.

Has you can see it has 3 horizontal slots and 3 vertical slot.  I bought this in a kit from Costco and with the exception that it is silver instead of black (all my other filing products are black), I love it.  Maybe I will spray paint it black at some point to match the rest. 

For the vertical files I will be placing my planner when not in use in the front slot.  Behind that will be my weekly folder and anything else I need for the current week.  The last slot will have the folder and items for the following week. 

For the horizontal slots, the top one will be stuff to sort... for instance, my husband can put the mail here if he brings it down, or if I have magazines to read and go through I can put them here.  Or anything else I need to go through and decide what to do with.  The middle slot will have items to put on my blogs- whether it be a menu or recipes for the food blog, or things I want to share here.  The bottom slot is for extra paper for the printer which sits right next to the file.

You will notice two planners here... this years is laying out and next years is sitting in its spot till I need it.  I actually switched what was in the first and second horizontal slots after I took this shot.  The 2 pieces of paper on top are actually recipes to add to my food blog (they have sinced been moved to the middle slot.) All the rest of the papers are items to be filed... since I will be filing things into weekly folders next year, I won't need a to be filed slot (this will be turned into a to be sorted slot when the new year starts.)

You can see a file folder that says "This months bills" behind my planner.  This was my bills system for this year, I had a folder for this months bills and one for future bills... It was too disorganized and I missed a few due dates.  This folder will vanish come the new year.  For now its home is right behind my planner (I have also cleaned it out so I don't miss any more due dates.)  The middle slot looks empty- but it's not.  This has papers and items I need for the rest of the year.  Then you can see my first weekly folder in the very back.

I like where I placed this, because everything is within reach.  I don't have to even turn my head.  I can just reach and grab.  Hopefully, with it being so close, I will have everything I need.

As a side note... i finished my weekly folders for next year this evening as well.  They are all in the bottom drawer of my big file cabinet ready and waiting to be used.