Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2020-03-08 12:35 am
azurelunatic) wrote2020-03-08 12:35 am
Entry tags:
File drawers!
I've been low-key wanting a proper set of file drawers for a while. So I started paying attention to the local ads (Craigslist, Nextdoor).
In January there was a sturdy little old two-drawer one with screwed-up rails and some things inside it. I replaced the rails and started removing the stuff, only to discover that there were vaccination records, among other things that someone might want back.
I was researching the owner (it seemed like the thing may have been on a second owner, for reasons) when the household and I got nastily sick (fun ER trip after my lungs were sufficiently congested that their noise kept me awake).
After getting better, I started triaging my own papers, and developed a way to get things incrementally organized without:
a) having to do all of the initial sorting at once
b) screwing up my past work when adding new things
c) having to commit to doing all the fiddly bits when adding subsequent barely-sorted clumps of paper.
I am tentatively calling it Red Folder, Blue Folder. The gimmick is that for each one folder that a non-ADHD person would have in their filing cabinet, we have (at least) two.
Red Folder serves two roles. For things like taxes, where there's a current set of papers and everything else is not current, the red folder is for the taxes that aren't done yet. For things that just need sorting and putting away, the red folder is for unsorted things in that category.
Blue Folder is things that are no longer active and are sorted. They're for keeping as long as they need to be kept.
I picked these colors because they were what came with the file drawer. They could be any two colors.
Also, I ran out of folders. So I put folders on the list. We headed to a friendly office supply store. (They still have toilet paper, paper towels, and some cleaning supplies, incidentally.)
Belovedest allowed as how they should work out how to store their own papers. They asked me if file drawers were a thing that got posted for cheap-or-free.
I'd just seen a promising-looking listing on Craigslist, and pulled it up. Still posted.
We got the files (letter size), searched Target for the right kind of hair tie for housemate (they're running low, but we didn't see the right kind), and paused to glare at the opportunistic person scalping Lysol wipes outside the door.
We swung by the location of the ad, which gave an address and the file drawers were on the porch. I did some volume math. The 4-drawer legal size one would fit in the car if the passenger seat was shoved forward. Problem: we had two large bags of groceries, plus miscellaneous car stuff. Solution: *rearranging* ...'kay.
The drawers were heavy. I recalled that the ad said there were folders inside. I started stuffing folders in the big IKEA bag to render the drawers carryable. I went and made sure the shoving path into the car was clear. (There was flat stuff in the trunk that needed moving to the side.) With some shoving and clanking, Belovedest walked it down the ramp from the porch, and we got it in the car.
The passenger seat couldn't fit me anymore. I eyed the space behind Belovedest's seat. I could fit, provided they set the insulated bag of cold groceries on my lap. And thus we drove home, and made sure to unload the cold groceries before the file drawers, since there'd be no energy left after that.
We got it into the house. Yellface was indignant about being shoved in the bathroom. Belovedest got it in place.alexseanchai gave it a good scrub. I started going through the folders and pulling out labels. I am absolutely giddy with delight (and endorphins, probably).
In January there was a sturdy little old two-drawer one with screwed-up rails and some things inside it. I replaced the rails and started removing the stuff, only to discover that there were vaccination records, among other things that someone might want back.
I was researching the owner (it seemed like the thing may have been on a second owner, for reasons) when the household and I got nastily sick (fun ER trip after my lungs were sufficiently congested that their noise kept me awake).
After getting better, I started triaging my own papers, and developed a way to get things incrementally organized without:
a) having to do all of the initial sorting at once
b) screwing up my past work when adding new things
c) having to commit to doing all the fiddly bits when adding subsequent barely-sorted clumps of paper.
I am tentatively calling it Red Folder, Blue Folder. The gimmick is that for each one folder that a non-ADHD person would have in their filing cabinet, we have (at least) two.
Red Folder serves two roles. For things like taxes, where there's a current set of papers and everything else is not current, the red folder is for the taxes that aren't done yet. For things that just need sorting and putting away, the red folder is for unsorted things in that category.
Blue Folder is things that are no longer active and are sorted. They're for keeping as long as they need to be kept.
I picked these colors because they were what came with the file drawer. They could be any two colors.
Also, I ran out of folders. So I put folders on the list. We headed to a friendly office supply store. (They still have toilet paper, paper towels, and some cleaning supplies, incidentally.)
Belovedest allowed as how they should work out how to store their own papers. They asked me if file drawers were a thing that got posted for cheap-or-free.
I'd just seen a promising-looking listing on Craigslist, and pulled it up. Still posted.
We got the files (letter size), searched Target for the right kind of hair tie for housemate (they're running low, but we didn't see the right kind), and paused to glare at the opportunistic person scalping Lysol wipes outside the door.
We swung by the location of the ad, which gave an address and the file drawers were on the porch. I did some volume math. The 4-drawer legal size one would fit in the car if the passenger seat was shoved forward. Problem: we had two large bags of groceries, plus miscellaneous car stuff. Solution: *rearranging* ...'kay.
The drawers were heavy. I recalled that the ad said there were folders inside. I started stuffing folders in the big IKEA bag to render the drawers carryable. I went and made sure the shoving path into the car was clear. (There was flat stuff in the trunk that needed moving to the side.) With some shoving and clanking, Belovedest walked it down the ramp from the porch, and we got it in the car.
The passenger seat couldn't fit me anymore. I eyed the space behind Belovedest's seat. I could fit, provided they set the insulated bag of cold groceries on my lap. And thus we drove home, and made sure to unload the cold groceries before the file drawers, since there'd be no energy left after that.
We got it into the house. Yellface was indignant about being shoved in the bathroom. Belovedest got it in place.
alexseanchai gave it a good scrub. I started going through the folders and pulling out labels. I am absolutely giddy with delight (and endorphins, probably).
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Especially in using the stairs.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
It grew out of my frustration, and my love of bucket sort as a physical-space algorithm.