Stuff With Which to Organize Other Stuff

If you're like me, you're probably always trying new ways to combat paper clutter in your house. Boxes, baskets, trays—they've all come and gone as paper organizers at our place. My most recent paper-related irk was the menus piling up in one of our kitchen drawers. They were piled up on top of other stuff—loose keys, condiments from take-out meals—and I found myself having to sift through the entire drawer just to find one thing.

So when I saw this post over at Mini Manor Blog, I was immediately sold on Ashli's method for take-out menu organization. I headed to Staples to buy one of the Martha Stewart Avery Pockets (there in the bottom right below).

I also saw these nifty little blue boxes at the Martha display at Staples and thought they'd be a great way to store keys and other loose ends in the drawer. I used a promotional coupon and got 40% off the pocket (sweet). My shopping trip ended with a visit to Target, where I spotted this great teal paper tray.

The pocket went up on the inside of a kitchen cabinet and I dropped the menus into it.

The blue boxes went into the drawer and were a perfect fit for odds and ends.

And the paper tray ended up on the office desk. I figure it will be a good temporary holding place for mail/documents until I can go through them and file away important stuff in our file box.