I have been occupied recently with my annual revision and reflection about what I achieved last year and the changes I need to make for 2010. Each New Year’s Eve, after the singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, I, like most people I know, make some New Year’s Resolutions.

In the past, some of my resolutions have been a trifle unrealistic – to lose 2 whole dress sizes by Easter! I really gave the ‘spend 30 minutes of each day meditating’ resolution a good run for about 10 years before accepting that the only time I had to use was when I was driving the car.

This year starts a new decade and looks to be filled with some really exciting projects, so I decided to spend some time sorting and tidying myself (and business) of all of the extra ‘stuff’ I accumulated over the past year. But my dilemma is how strict I should be e.g.  reducing my contacts file?

I know from the past, that as soon as I dispose of a specific article, I find that I have a new use for it. So I’m trying to develop an improved filing system, using a series of colour coded storage boxes. I have labelled each box with the various family members and placed memorabilia, photos, certificates, news paper cuttings inside for each person.

The same goes for all letters, emails, digital photographs which are also being filed and saved under each person’s named folder, as I am confident that in a few year’s time, these items will be needed for some important reason.

I have also started boxes for each year of the past decade and my ‘tidying’ regime has been both pleasant and organised. Why not adopt my mantra for January 2010 “Get Organised” and discover the peace of mind that comes when you know where to locate a missing item or article.

Let me know if this system works for you, or if you have any other tips you’d like to pass on.