Creating a home paper management system

Reader Steve sent us a great solution for keeping mail off his family’s kitchen counter tops and dining table:

Our problem was that every piece of mail, receipt, kids artwork, etc. lands in our kitchen and ends up in endless piles. With everything from tax forms to our 4-year old’s “masterpieces” piled together, we never know where anything is. Since our home office is upstairs in our home, nothing ever seems to make its way there. As a result, I used six mini “Command” removable hooks and six 10″ x 13″ mailing envelopes to create a paperwork organization wall on the inside of a coat closet door, adjacent to our kitchen. I labeled the envelopes for “Bills,” “My paperwork,” “My wife’s paperwork,” “HSA receipts,” “Worthwhile Coupons,” and “SHRED.”

This new system allows my wife and I to easily sort paperwork into its appropriate place and then hide it away by simply closing the door. We can then grab the folders, as necessary, on our way to the office, the store, or the shredder, and bring them back when we are done.

I think this is a wonderful solution that could work for many busy people and families. If you’re someone who might take an envelope up to the office and then forget to immediately return it to the door, you could easily hang two additional empty folders on each hook. Instead of using envelopes, you could also use large binder clips.

Thanks, Steve, for sharing your terrific solution with us.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.


IE-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

IE-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Tokyo firm Naruse Inokuma Architects created these pads of page markers from demolished wooden houses.

Called IE-tag, the notes come in blocks shaped like gabled houses and can be arranged to represent a little village on a desk or along a book’s edge.

IE-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

See Dezeen’t top ten: paper products »

IE-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

The information below is from Naruse Inokuma Architects:


IE-tag

Yuri Naruse + Jun Inokuma
Naruse Inokuma Architects

This is a tag made of paper from wooden building waste.

IE-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

In regenerating wooden building waste into paper, rather than discarding or burning it for energy, we propose the entire process flow up to the final product.

This tag is shaped as a house, retaining the memory of the material when it was part of a house.

IE-tag by Naruse Inokuma Architects

When several are arranged together, they form a town. What had originally been part of townscape now creates a small version of townscape on your desk.


See also:

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Monster by Tomáš Král and Camille Blin for OKOLOBookmark lamp
by Léonard Kadid
More paper
things

We’re celebrating our fourth birthday by giving away three S1100 Fujitsu ScanSnaps

Today is Unclutterer’s fourth birthday! As part of the celebration, Fujitsu has generously provided three of their new, ultra-portable, S1100 ScanSnap scanners for us to give away to three lucky Unclutterer Twitter followers.

We’ve teamed up with Fujitsu to help our readers cut back on paper waste, digitize clutter, better organize work/home offices, and celebrate our big four. We will give away three ScanSnap S1100 scanners next Tuesday, January 11, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. EST.

How to enter to win: Entering to win is simple. All you need to do is follow us on Twitter. If you aren’t already on Twitter, create an account and then follow us @Unclutterer.

We will randomly select three winners from our Twitter followers. You only need to follow us once (and please, only once), to participate in the giveaway. If you already follow us on Twitter, then you are already participating and need not do anything more. Winners of the giveaway will have 24 hours to respond to a direct message from @Unclutterer to claim their new scanner. Failure to respond within 24 hours will disqualify you from the giveaway.

While you’re following @Unclutterer, consider also following Fujitsu @ScanSnapIT for scanning tips and news. I know that some of you aren’t interested in social media and will complain about having to sign up for Twitter to participate in the giveaway — however, this is the easiest way for us to manage the giveaway and it ensures that many of our readers are already entered to win with no additional effort on their part. Also, if you’re an avid Wired magazine reader, you know that social networking sites can help increase worker productivity if used efficiently. If you still wish to complain, well, please don’t because you can always cancel your account after the contest has ended. This is simply the easiest way for us to conduct the giveaway.

I am so exited about this birthday event and cannot wait to give away three Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 scanners. Remember, you have until 10:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, January 11, to follow us on Twitter for the scanner giveaway. Good luck, and again a special thanks to Fujitsu for their amazing generosity!

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.


The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100: An ultra-portable paper clutter reducer

Yesterday at CES, Fujitsu released its latest model in its ScanSnap scanner series. The S1100 is a mobile color scanner, smaller than my shoe:

ScanSnap sent me a model to test a couple weeks ago, and I think it’s a great little machine. (It’s weird how I drool over scanners and their paper clutter-reduction powers … I may have a problem … ) It works with the same dependability and quality as other ScanSnap products.

It took me about four minutes to install the software, and I was able to use the scanner instantly after that. The software works with both PC and Mac.

My only complaint is that it doesn’t scan both sides of the paper you feed into it. However, since I have a desktop scanner that does duplex, it’s not such a big deal to me. This device is really built for lugging around in your briefcase or suitcase, so its compact size and convenience outweigh the lack of duplex scanning. If you attend a lot of conferences, you want a small scanner like this that weighs next-to-nothing (my home scale said it weighed half a pound) and quickly processes all the paper you collect. You could easily leave an event without a single piece of paper cluttering up your travel bag.

When ScanSnap contacted me to see if I might want to review one of the S1100 models, I asked if they might be interested in giving away a few units to our readers in celebration of Unclutterer’s fourth birthday (assuming I liked the unit). They were generously game (the units are currently retailing for $199 a piece), and later today we’ll provide details about the giveaway. Stay tuned if you’re interested in winning one for yourself. I think a lot of Unclutterer readers could use an ultra-portable scanner like this.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Four Creative Calendars

A selection of innovative calendars to kick-start the the new year

While the new year may have already rang in, the glass-half-full contingent would say there are still still 360 days left to enjoy a curious calendar. We found four designs that break away from the standard wall calendar to help make 2011 a little more interesting.

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Wanderkalendar

Aptly titled, Wanderkalendar‘s simple format has a lot to offer. The blue side is printed in English in landscape orientation, while portrait view is in German on a gray background. The smooth double-sided calendar comes with 100 perforated blank stickie notes for keeping track of important dates—especially useful for the chronic rescheduler. Wanderkalendar sells online from Populäre Produkte for €15. Via Design Milk.

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Fedrigoni UK

The 2011 calendar for the fine Italian paper specialist Fedrigoni UK was created by graphic designer Paul Betowski, a recent graduate of Cornwall University. Inspired by Russian nesting dolls, the 12-box set shows off their Sirio Color paper series with each month individually Diecut to reveal the color beneath. A promotional item, the calendar is available to UK residents only, by emailing General Enquiries at Fedrigoni UK. Via Packaging of The World.

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Dot To Date

Dan Usiskin‘s Dot To Date calendar channels the classic childhood game of connect the dots in a pack of 12+ recyclable cards. Quintessential London monuments are turned into rocket ships, Ferris wheels, miniature statues and more with seemingly endless creative possibilities. Dot To Date sells online for £12. Via Yatzer.

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Pantone

Scottish designer Derek Bowers created this impressive Pantone calendar by placing 1440 images in Illustrator, all by hand. With an aim to create a globally significant calendar, Bowers used the universally-acknowledged color wheel to display many of the main religious and cultural holidays around the world alongside each color’s cultural significance. Not yet in production, you can support Bowers’ Pantone calendar on Behance in hopes he will soon produce this beautiful graphic design.


QRapping Paper

Questo farebbe impazzire il mio amico Francio! Si tratta della carta da regalo più interattiva mai vista sul mercato. Un’idea tanto semplice quanto geniale. Il pattern ha impressi i QR code di 50 diversi video natalizi. Costicchia ma la vostra popolarità in compa si alzerebbe a livelli vertiginosi.
[Via]

Katsumi Hayakawa

Retour sur les tableaux en 3 dimensions par l’artiste Katsumi Hayakawa, basée à Tokyo au Japon. Des créations et réalisations étonnantes avec cette série composée uniquement en bouts de papiers découpés. Plus d’images de son travail dans la suite de l’article.



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Previously on Fubiz

Meet Furni ver.III

In questi giorni esce la nuova sveglia ALBA ME prodotta da Furni. Quindi Mike, dopo aver visto la nuova pagina di BCPT, mi ha chiesto di collaborare ad una nuova versione. Questa è precisamente la terza che vede il nostro paper toy in vesti canadesi.
Enjoy the week end!

Meet Furni ver.III

Meet Furni ver.III

Meet Furni ver.III

Meet Furni ver.III

Meet Furni ver.III

Interactive Paper Sculpture

Une conception graphique inédite et réussie par l’auteur Jonathan Safran pour son dernier livre “Tree of Codes”. L’ouvrage est un papier sculpture interactif édité par Visual Editions et imprimé par Die Keure. Un défi technique d’écriture et de découpage pendant plus d’un an.



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Previously on Fubiz

Never forget to send a card with Jack Cards

With holiday card sending season on the horizon, my husband and I have been trying to decide what we want to send this year. While researching our options, I learned about the website Jack Cards, which is an incredibly helpful service for busy people. It’s more than a holiday card sending service, it’s a service to use throughout the year to remove the stress of buying cards and stamps. An explanation of their service from the website:

Jack Cards is designed for busy people who value sending a handwritten birthday, anniversary or ‘miss you’ card but find it hard to get to a card shop or post office on time.

Based in San Francisco, California, Jack Cards uniquely focuses on delivering pre-scheduled ready-to-go (stamped and addressed) greeting cards to the sender just in time to write their own personal message inside and drop it in the mailbox.

Registration for the service is free, but you pay for the price of the card, shipping the card to you, and postage to the card recipient (domestic and international postage are both available). They have bulk discounts when you buy 5 or more of the same card, which you might do for the holidays. Jack Cards has a very strict privacy policy, so none of the information you give to them will ever be sold and is stored safely. The hardest part of the process is setting up your “My Planner” section, which involves answering questions about the type of cards you wish to send and providing contact information. Setting up the “My Planner” section, however, takes much less time than heading to the store to buy cards and stamps numerous times a year. How involved you want Jack Cards to be in the process is your decision — they can pick out cards or you can do it, they can write a message or you can, they can address the envelope or you can, they can mail the card or you can.

For busy people who like the art of sending handwritten cards, Jack Cards is a terrific service. If having someone else involved in the process isn’t for you, check out “Birthday cards and reminder systems” for tips on how to get cards out the door on time.

(Pictured card by Bumble Ink, available through Jack Cards.)

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.