Owning the manual mess

 Once upon a time I had a place for owner's manuals. It was that black box you see in the picture below.
Years passed by, it got full, and I started stashing them in the filing cabinet you see in the picture below.
Years passed by, it got full, and I started stuffing them in that white box you see in the picture below.
Years passed by, it got full, and we moved to a new house and made a pile of the new owner's manuals that came with the new house on that shelf you see in the picture below.

 Aaaargh!!!! While I was unpacking I piled all the piles together with an empty plastic file box that you see in the picture above and I resolved to get the piles under control as soon as possible. I finally managed it in the last week or so.
First, I threw away A LOT of owner's manuals. Like the ones from Kayleigh's infant toys. She's almost 25 years old and those toys are LONG gone. It's obvious why the manuals were taking over the place, I guess.
After I threw away the manuals to everything we no longer owned, I sorted the rest out and filed them.

In some cases I was very specific, and sometimes a general "Toys" or "Furniture" file seemed sufficient.
I just reused some folders I've had around forever. And I used a sharpie to label the box. I wasn't trying to make it beautiful. I'm never going to show it to anyone.
Well, except all of you.
I'll keep the box with our other files so we can easily access it when the need arises.
And I'll TRY to remember to get rid of the owner's manual to a thing when I get rid of the thing itself from now on. I mean, come on! 25 years is a long time to hang on to a piece (or 100 pieces) of paper!

Now if I could just get Roger to organize all his work paper piles into one manageable system.
One thing at a time...one thing at a time.

Linking up to a great organizing party. Lots of great ideas there, check it out!