It’s Time To Get Organized – My Genealogy Rewind or Getting My Poop In A Group
I remember when I first started doing genealogy someone said you can tell a genealogist by the mounds of papers they have on and around their desk. Over the years that visual has stayed in my head and there are times I’ve become that genealogist. But now I’ve decided that its time to, dare I say it? Get my poop in a group.
The problem when you let these stacks of paper accumulate is that you lose control of your research. At least I feel that way. As you can see from the photos of my desk, it’s recently gotten out of hand. There are times that I feel I might have an important document in my own archives of papers. Perhaps I may have found it early on in my research and I don’t realize that I have. I decided that I need to bring all my papers together in one spot. That coupled with the fact that my husband; Kevin is kinda a neat nut so I’m learning some of his techniques.
So last week I decided was the day that I would start my tidy up program. I know there are programs and courses on the subject but I wanted to do it my way. I’m a crafter so I had some plastic craft boxes and I happened to have 4 colors so I started out with that approach. I identified each bin with a family and as I came across a paper that was to do with that family it was put in the box.
It started to take shape.
Then enter Kevin, remember I said he’s a neat nut, he said, what if you had racks you could put the boxes in? Then the project evolved. Next thing you know we were on our way to Michael’s to purchase two carts with bins in them. We stated one on top of the other. We got mine at Michael’s but you can also get them on Amazon.
I took cardstock and cut blue and pink labels to put on the front of each bin. The top bins are for family surnames from my father’s side (hence the blue) and the bottom is for my mom’s side (hence the pink). I even have a bin for the Beaton Batten Mystery (notice the brickwall background) and Shirtail Relations.
So the office is coming together. There will be other articles and a section of its own on the blog in the near future as I continue to “Get my Poop in a Group”, I’ve also started a Pinterest page called; Getting My Poop In A Group. where I’ve posted some of the things I’ve found so far to help with my effort to get my genealogy organized. I hope you’ll follow along and I’d love to hear your ideas as to how you’re getting your poop in a group.
