hurrayic

Addressing Others: Address Book

I don't know about you, but I always find it hard to throw out old address books for fear that I might actually need that particular address or phone number.  So I keep them.  When I was cleaning out my kitchen drawer (which by the way is still in great order!), I pulled out these rather sorry-looking address books. I've had them for years.  The covers were torn; many of the addresses inside were ancient and obsolete.  In some cases, a family member or friend had moved so many times, that their name and new address appeared multiple times and without the former address being crossed out. Little slips of paper with unassigned phone numbers jotted down spilled from their pages...what a mess. I started looking for a new address book.  I wanted something pretty but also very simple.  User friendly.  Something I could add to or delete from with ease.  Something that was very portable. 



Enter my new address book. 
Sort of like a rolodex.
It fits all those categories I mentioned. 
Simple.  Pretty.  Portable.

And if I need to make a change, I rip out the page and insert a new one.

I decided to print out the names and addresses onto mailing labels then affixed each one to a page.  Now I just need to handwrite the phone # and email for each.  Hopefully this will help me with my new project (yes yes, I mentioned doing this 'lifelong project' about 1 month ago, but got side-tracked...)

I purchased it from Beth Bee Books. 

A little step forward

I'll be honest, I really don't like cleaning and housework.  I'd much rather spend my time cooking or knitting or reading a good book.  My house has dust, the windows are so fingerprinted and dirty that I do believe it acts as another protective layer against the sun's rays. If you visited (unexpectedly without prior notice) you'd most likely find that you could in fact eat off my floors (crumbs everywhere), or be treated to a free acupuncture session (step on a stray lego piece) or better yet...try your hand at the world's most challenging puzzle (walking through the maze of clutter in my home).  Seriously, that's how I feel some days about the state of my house.  I know in the scheme of everything, will it really matter?  No.  But it does help my sanity when the house is at least picked up and organized. 

So for 2012, I've begun a tiny baby step: organize the kitchen drawer.  You know the one.  The catch-all one (Not to be confused with the other catch-all drawer from several years ago. Once again, that one needs organizing.) near the phone that holds the address book(s) which may or may not be up-to-date, business cards, pencils, pens and all kinds of odds and ends that you don't know what else to do with.   Ours was overflowing to the point that I was having trouble closing it and papers would fall down behind it onto the shelf in the cabinet below.  It was a mess! I emptied it, threw out a whole slew of papers, changed my address books to something else (which I'll show you next week), and bought a Fohoja cutlery tray from Ikea to hold certain essentials.  The small box on the left was a thrift store find that I bought for a quarter.  It holds all the odds & ends that we don't know what they're for but don't want to throw out yet. 
So now I have a place for pencils, tape, sticky notes, scissors and sharpies.  There's still a little room in the back of the drawer for collected business cards (which I rubberbanded) and a copy of church's directory (only the most recent one). 

Admittedly, this is only a little step forward in organization, but a big step for more clear thinking.  While I was at it, I reorganized a few other kitchen drawers. Presently, I've got a nice pile of 'stuff' to give away or as the kids are urging me to do, add to our tag sale bags so that when springtime comes, we'll be ready.  Don't know if I can wait that long... may have to make a trip over to the thrift store for dropping off de clutta...