I am NOT a very organized person in the true sense of the word. I do have my own little system, which my husband refers to as “organized chaos”. For example, my desk is covered with Post-It notes. There are also stacks upon stacks of papers on my desk. I “sort of” know where everything is. I think?
My husband is always on my case about organizing things better so that when I need the kids physical records I don’t have to crawl on my hands and knees under the desk looking for them (by the way, they are on the printer, exactly where I put them, or at least I hope so!).
My dear husband is so organized that it scares me. Ha Ha. Even our music CDs are alphabetized AND in chronological order from the date the album was released. That means all our Mariah Carey CDs (he’s a fan) are in the CD case in sequence from the first released album to the last one we have of hers. Yeah, OK… like I’m going to know these things. As long as her CD is with the others that is fine with me. My CDs are sometimes organized by genre and sometimes by which ones are my favorites. It depends on what mood I’m in. I am also happy if they make it in the CD case at all.
Now that I have two children in two different schools this year things are going to get more confusing. My son will no doubt have to go into school early for math help and this year he’s going to be back in the band. He was playing drums, took a year off, but now wants to do it again. Our daughter is in a special art program (advanced art) that meets after school. She also does track and she’s applying for the National Junior Honor Society which means community service I need to keep track of since she needs a specific number of hours in order to be accepted and remain a member of the Honor Society.
Not only that we have five pets with vet records to keep track of, my husband new work schedule (he’ll be bouncing around to different locations) and of course my blog with the various reviews and giveaways.
Another words… I need to find a way to get super duper organized – STAT!
THANKFULLY I have a solution… the SMEAD Stadium File. OH! This is going to be the best thing since sliced bread!
The SMEAD Stadium File is a HUGE free-standing accordion style folder. It has 12 different “pockets” and expands really wide to accommodate A LOT of files and papers (yeah!). This way you can have instant access to the paperwork or files you need without having to sort through a bunch of different files.
The sides are reinforced and tear resisitant which means you can really stuff it to the max without worrying about it ripping apart on you.
Here is my SMEAD Stadium File. I was playing around with the colored manila folders to see how easily they fit inside.
As you can see if it free standing which means I could keep it on my desk (if there was room) or on the counter in the kitchen. Currently it’s sitting on the bottom of my husband’s wardrobe since we don’t have much counter space either. It’s easy accessible but also out of site. That way I don’t have to worry about guests flipping through personal files.
Check out how roomy it is!
I took the pictures when I first received the Stadium File. Currently we have a section for each family member (4), one for our dog, one for our cats (the four cats share a section) and one labeled “Miscellaneous”. We have five available sections. We haven’t labeled them yet because my husband feels we should have labeled one way and I feel they should be labeled another way. We’re in a bit of a disagreement so for now the remaining five sections are in “label limbo”. Ha Ha.
Check out the SMEAD Super Tab folders. These are great folders because they come in different colors (you can color code things) and because the space to label them is nice and big.
A pet peeve of mine has always been that folders don’t have big enough tabs. I would either have to write very tiny or type on a label and cut it do size. With these super tabs there is plenty of room to write. Even better I can use regular size return address labels to type the file name on and make it look nice and neat without having to cut them down to fit. My handwriting is super sloppy (due to Carpal Tunnel). Its nice to have my folders nice and neat looking with typed information on a bright white label.
Eventually this is how mine will look like (except my folders have white labels on them).
I am THRILLED that I can finally get all these loose papers off my desk and my husband is happy that he can find things again. Plus it’s sort of nice to see my printer again since its usually buried under paperwork. I also feel less stressed with less clutter on my desk. There is nothing more stressing then having all those papers taunting me while I am trying to get some work done.
The SMEAD Stadium File and Super Tab Folders have come to the rescue an have saved me from disorganization oblivion!
SMEAD products are available at various retail locations including Staples, Amazon and Office Depot.
For more information about SMEAD visit www.Smead.com.
Kimberly
*I received free product samples in order to do this review. I am also receiving a gift card to compensate for my time. There is no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.