Attempting to get Organized

I think most of you know what I mean when I say that my counters are always overflowing with paperwork.  It's amazing to me really, how much stuff comes home from school even in this technologically advanced day and age.  I get texts announcing homework assignments and upcoming tests but still they send floods of paperwork home for me.  

The evils of papers.....well first there is the clutter.  It drives me nuts to have a cluttered kitchen (or dining room table AHEM..if any of my family members may be reading this) and it makes me cranky.  No one likes a cranky mama.  Second, there is the problem of never really knowing where anything is.  One of the kids needs to turn some of that paperwork in and then I'm digging through piles for an hour or two.  And let me just say that once I start digging through a pile, I have to go through it, organize it to the best of my ability and sort out the junk which just consumes more time.  

In order to combat the clutter and chaos, one of my goals for this year was to become more organized.  What better way to do that than to search my favorite treasure trove of information and ideas....Pinterest.  I've found loads of wonderful ideas for home organization binders and other odds & ends.  I'm currently in the process of moving everything to binders.  I have a home binder, one for my son's schooling info (for anyone who has a child with an IEP, you know how much paperwork that can generate!), and legal & financial info.  I still need to get one done for my daughter, one for the budget and one for the extras (travel plans, crafting things I found in magazines, etc).  I also decided we needed some cork and dry erase boards so I glammed up some of my own.

Here is my spruced up cork board (with some of my binders in evidence):

 And another one of the board with the dressed up clothespins:

 And finally, our dry erase board where everyone can list items that need to go on the grocery list:

The dry erase board was simply a frame I already had on hand with some cute scrapbook paper inside.  The cork board I bought at JoAnn along with a 1/2 yard of fabric, decorative upholstery nails and a wooden letter that I painted white.  It was a fun project and I feel more organized already!