Best Results Organizing

Five minutes after all the presents were opened last year, were you surrounded by wrapping paper clutter?  Did you spend painstaking hours trying to get a present wrapped just right, with the side flaps (somewhat) even and the bows just where they ought to go, only to find your family had turned into paperniverous creatures of mayhem? 

Even if you also participated in the madness (you just knew there was an iPhone in there!), you probably felt a little queasy about the square miles of forest that went into momentarily hiding the identity of your gifts.  There’s another way.

As I’ve admitted before, Paper Doll isn’t the greenest blogger on the planet.  And while my pal Kermit    says that it’s not easy being green, there are ways, if you keep an open mind, to accomplish three things at once:

• Have festive, attractive (or at least serviceable) non-paper holiday gift wrap.
• Reduce that mean old carbon footprint and protect the environment a bit.
• Solve wrapping conundrums that formerly yielded messy, crumpled, adhesive-lumped blobs.

If that last benefit seems odd, then you’re probably one of those people who generally wraps everything from surf boards to vacuum cleaners with equal and impressive panache.  Paper Doll is pleased to have you as a reader, but is a little envious, as I’m all thumbs (and not the cute “thumb-people” kind you see in the AT&T/Samsung commercials). Let’s just say that I’m lucky my best friend’s little boy looked past the mountains of Scotch tape and rough angles of my miserable attempt to hide a stuffed lion in wrapping paper.  Readers, it wasn’t pretty.

The coolest alternative to wrapping paper comes by way of Japan, direct from our friends at Recycle Now.  It’s Furoshiki, the Japanese art of gift wrapping.  If you’re wondering how two wine (or sparkling cider) bottles like this:

could be transformed into something as nifty as this:

  pop over to view this video. 

Go ahead.  You’ll probably need to watch a few times.  Don’t worry.  I’ll wait.  Come back when you’re ready.

Nifty, eh?  You can find more instructions on how to do Furoshiki at the Japan’s Ministry of the Environment page, and videos here and here.

Sigh.  But maybe viewing these instructions and videos made you feel as klutzy and all-thumbs as I did when I watched that popular Japanese video on folding t-shirts.  If that’s the case, don’t worry, there are still environmentally-friendly wrapping options for people like us:

Deck the Halls with Aluminum Foil–It’s shiny.  It’s smooth.  You can make it crinkly if you want.  It form-fits to whatever shape/size you’re wrapping, and you often don’t even need tape.  Add a ribbon, colored twine, stickers, a blown-up balloon (or multiples) and you’ve got a surprise star from the drawers of your kitchen.  (C’mon, they sell wrapping paper that looks just like aluminum foil.  Why not go to the source?)  When you’re all done, you can use the foil to scour your oven racks and other amazing things.

Go On a Map Quest–Although companies sell recycled maps as wrapping paper, why not dig through your glove compartment, your travel bag and your I’m-going-to-scrapbook-it-someday pile of vacation memorabilia of subway maps and recycle your own collection.  Think big–old road maps that predate the Eisenhower Highway System.  Or think small–maps of new grocery stores, malls or museums.

See You In The Funny Papers–At best, you were going to recycle Cathy and Dilbert anyway.  Why not give them another life as holiday wrapping?

Find the Writing On The Wall–Or you can at least make use of the wallpaper.  Do you have bits of wallpaper, shelf paper, Kraft (butcher) paper or any other decorative or craft-oriented paper that’s going to waste?  Call upon your arts & crafts skills, or let the kids paint, crayon or doodle a masterpiece.

Bang the Drum–When something is too oddly shaped to wrap the wrapping around it, contain it instead.  A clean coffee canister or cookie tin works great for “hiding” the true shape of a gift, and you’ve got a make-shift percussion instrument after the unwrapping is over.

Put a Little Bounce In Your Step–Lidded, opaque Rubbermaid tubs (Get it? Bounce? Rubbermaid? ) are already colorful and perfect for disguising the shape of large gifts.

If It’s Good Enough For the Cow–Smaller gifts can be nestled inside real or faux leather boxes  like this one from OnlineOrganizing.com.

Don’t Lose Your Marbles:  Fabric Gift Bags–Remember those nifty little bags for holding onto your marbles?  You can buy them or make them yourself. Or, pretend you’ve time traveled to the Little House on the Prairie days and use a decorative pillow case tied at the top with a ribbon. And don’t tell me you’ve never heard of people re-using those oh-so regal Crown Royal bags for everything from masking tiny presents to corralling Scrabble tiles.  Sure, doesn’t require Furoshiki methods, but you’ll be wrapped and on your way!

Don’t Forget Fabric GIFTS–Who’s to say you can’t wrap a gift in a gift?  Take your heavier, more solid gifts and wrap them them your choice of a second, fabric gift: a silk or wool scarf, pashmina, baby blanket, or colorful beach towel.  If the main gift is big enough (think: bicycle or sled), how about wrapping it in a comforter or sleeping bag?

Rejoice In Holiday Reruns–You can always reuse the least-wrinkled wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, bows and ribbons from last year.  However, if your willingness to “go green” doesn’t extend as far as re-using wrapping paper from holiday to holiday, at least save the scraps for your nearest arts & crafts pal to use for decoupage, paper mche, scrapbook page borders, or origami…which brings us back to where we started, with Japanese solutions to our wrapping paper problems.

Kermit would be proud.  And with that, I think it’s time to    wrap things up.  Please use the comments field to share your favorite alternatives to wrapping paper clutter.

Paper Doll hates to clutter up your screen or RSS feed with a second post today, but I just had to share some exciting news.

First, a hearty thank-you to Rubbermaid’s blogger extraordinaire, Jim Deitzel, for profiling me on the Rubbermaid Adventures in Organization blog.  I was interviewed as part of their ongoing Q&A with a Professional Organizer series. Please take a peek, and feel free to post a comment to let Jim and the folks at Rubbermaid know you appreciate their support of the professional organizing community and everybody’s efforts to get organized.

So that was LAST week.  This week, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be one of the guests on WBO (Women Business Owners) BlogTalk Radio.  I’ll be interviewed tomorrow (Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 11 a.m. EST), but if that’s the middle of the night in your time zone or you’ll be busy doing other things, be assured you’ll be able to listen to the rebroadcast for quite some time after the show airs.  If you are able to make it, click the Set Reminder link on the right side of the WBO BlogTalk Radio page and WBO will even send you a timely reminder to click to listen to the show.

Even better, if you’ve got a pressing organizing questions (not just about paper), you’ll have a chance to call in.  The WBO (Women Business Owners) BlogTalk Radio call-in number is 347-205-9229.

Paper Doll now returns you to your regularly scheduled Tuesday.

If you traveled over Thanksgiving week, chances are good that you returned to a mailbox as fully and robustly overstuffed   as you felt last Thursday night.  Even if you didn’t travel, I’m sure you noticed your mail carrier struggling and your daily mail piles exhibiting a growth spurt. 

Sure, you’re seeing more ads and coupons, inveigling you to spend your precious little green bits of paper, and perhaps you’ve seen greetings from those early-bird friends who address holiday cards while they watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But the biggest contribution to all that Mail Call Clutter?  Requests for charitable giving! 

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by requests for charitable donations.  Certainly, you want to help further the causes about which you’re concerned (children’s issues, healthcare, the environment, animals, education, poverty…and the list goes on), but you may be troubled by multiple concerns regarding the charitable-giving process:

Limited Funds
No one individual (heck–not even Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey combined) has the funds to solve all of the world’s troubles.  You may wonder if your contribution, even if it’s all you can comfortably provide, has the power to make a difference.

Competing Interests
Weighing charitable-giving options against one another can paralyze you into doing nothing, letting the piles of requests (and their associated letters and “gifts” of themed return address labels) creep across the kitchen table and overtake your office desk. 

Just as you couldn’t take as much as you wanted from the Thanksgiving buffet because the elastic in your waistband could stretch no farther, your finances are finite and the number of charitable giving options, even just the non-profits actively seeking your help, are practically infinite.  Responding to each request is no more suitable an answer than ignoring them all but letting the papers clutter your surroundings and the guilt of non-responsiveness clutter your heart and mind.

Frustration and Confusion with Repeated Requests
Months ago, when we talked about magazines, we noted that subscription departments start sending renewal requests almost immediately after you’ve just renewed.  They count on you forgetting you’ve re-upped or your significant other being unaware that you’ve already renewed. 

While non-profit organizations certainly have more lofty goals than scamming you out of your money sooner than you planned, they nonetheless present you with an onslaught of requests.  If you give to Charity A in December, not only will you receive repeated requests over the ensuing months for “Special Giving Opportunities” to Charity A, but in many cases, you will receive requests from similarly-themed Charities B, C, D to double-Z because many non-profits earn revenue by selling their “lists”.

So what are the solutions to counter these frustrations?

Instead of choosing between the weight of guilt or the fear of exceeding your holiday (or monthly) budget, remember that there are better alternatives to feeling pressured into sitting down and writing a check to every cause that owns a bulk mail stamp–and none involve getting a sub-prime loan, robbing street-corner Santas or letting charitable clutter creep through your home.  Instead:

• PLAN YOUR CHARITABLE GIVING BUDGET, not only for the holiday season, but for the upcoming year.

This may shock many of you who have been conditioned by the “This offer is available for a limited time only.  Operators are standing by!” mentality, but non-profits are always in need of money.  In fact, some receive the bulk of their donations in the Fourth Quarter and then suffer from lack of funds by the middle of the next year.

Just because you get dozens of requests for donations in December, your contributions will be no less valuable, life-saving or appreciated if sent three or six months down the line.  Create and label a manila folder to collect all of the requests you receive for holiday donations, and during a quiet moment on New Year’s Day or soon after, sip some hot chocolate and review the requests.  (Make a note on your calendar and treat this as if it were a formal appointment with the director of each of the non-profit organizations.  You’ll be more inclined to keep the appointment.)

Start by picking the charities that mean the most to you.  Ask yourself, “If I had only $50 (or $5, or $100…) to donate to charity, which non-profit would give me the greatest joy to help?  Which would make me feel the most satisfied in my choice?” 

There’s no right or wrong answer.  While one person might donate to help political prisoners in an impoverished nation, another might choose to support an animal shelter two blocks away.  One of you heroes might choose to donate to medical research to find a cure for a disease that afflicts millions while another might give to one family whose home burned down in a fire. 

Remember:  you can’t give to everyone, but you can feel good about to whom you choose to give.

As you sort through the pile of requests, determine two things:

1)  How much can you comfortably afford to give each month?  (Don’t forget any charities to whom you’ve already obligated yourself with pledges, such as your house of worship’s building fund, your alma mater or public television/radio.)

2)  How do you want to parcel your gifts out? 

That is, do you want to give to 12 charities, and assign one to each month of the year (or six charities, every other month, or one per quarter)?  If so, tuck the envelopes away in your tickler file or bill-paying center.  In this way, you can keep the spirit of giving alive throughout the year without being overwhelmed or over budget.

Or, would you prefer to give to one or two particular charities all year long?  In that case, look into setting up a recurring donation on the same day of the month through your online bill-paying system.  (You could schedule payments via credit card, but that would end up costing the non-profit extra money in merchant account fees.)

Just because you receive address labels or a small gift does not obligate you to make a donation to a charity, just as receiving holiday card from a distant acquaintance does not obligate you add the individual to your card list.  Don’t let them turn advertising techniques into a free ticket on the Guilt Trip Express.

• BUDGET CASH FOR AD HOC DONATIONS, such as when you encounter a Salvation Army bell-ringer or want to purchase a meal for a homeless person. 

If you’ve decided you can spend $100 (for example) on charitable donations, set aside $5 or $10 in singles in a separate section of your wallet so you can make unplanned donations without breaking your budget.

• PARTNER WITH OTHERS to achieve a charitable giving goal.  For example, propose that you and your networking colleagues (or you and your Pilates class buddies), donate the monetary equivalent of one networking lunch or one post-class Jumpy Java to one specific charitable goal. 

Or, if you wish to keep the spirit going all year, create a charitable giving club the same way you’d start an investment club.  Instead of collecting articles about stocks and mutual funds, collect the brochures and request letters from non-profits and bring them to your group meetings.  (You’ll be less inclined to toss a charitable request on top of your microwave if you know a group member feels passionately about that same cause.)

• INVEST TIME IN EDUCATING YOURSELF ABOUT CHARITIES

Not all non-profits are created alike.  Learn about the charities to which you are considering giving financial support.  Find out what percentage of donations will be used for funding programs, research, etc., and what percentage goes towards advertising, paying staff, etc.  To get you started, investigate potential recipient charities via:
GuideStar.org‘s basic level provides free access to information that lets you verify a charity’s legitimacy, learn whether your prospective contribution will be tax deductible, view a non-profit’s IRS Form 990, or find out more about a their programs, mission statement and financial activities.  Their database is huge, with well over one million non-profits included.

  The Better Business Bureau’s web site for charities offers Wise Giving Reports, explains charity accountability standards and provides background information on all the non-profits in their accredited charity directory.

The American Institute of Philanthropy operates CharityWatch.org.  Review their A-Z (well, A-Y, from the AARP Foundation to the Youth Development Fund) listings of hundreds of charities to learn more about their operations.
And, thanks to a reminder from reader Susan, I am editing this post to include CharityNavigator.org, which evaluates the financial health of thousands of America’s largest charities.  Browse by charity name or category, and check out their blog, articles and charity ratings.

• GIVE (actual) GIFTS OF CHARITY

There are some people who have everything, need nothing, and for whom peace, tranquility and kindness are precious gifts.  (Stop laughing!)  Most of us like unwrapping something shiny, but there are special opportunities at the holidays to provide gifts that, while not in tangible form for the giftee, provide profound intangible meaning for them while providing something tangible to the third-party recipients (the hungry, the impoverished, the innocent, the needy) of your largess.

In case you’re wondering, some of Paper Doll‘s favorite charities are listed right here on my blog, in my Doing Well By Doing Good blogroll on the right side of the page.  (For those of you reading via an RSS subscription page, click here to see a small subset of the non-profits that float Paper Doll‘s boat.)  And just this past weekend, my esteemed colleague, Jeri Dansky, had a great blog post about giving charitable gifts.

In a future post, we’ll talk about tracking your charitable giving paperwork for tax time.  For right now, just be sure to make a notation on the request letter to show how much you sent, on what date, using what method (check, credit card, etc.) File the letter in the tax prep section of your family files until you receive an official confirmation of your donation.

In the meantime, feel good.  You did a good deed for someone else, and you halted the charitable clutter creep.

Don’t worry about the things you want that you don’t have.  Instead, be grateful that you don’t have what you don’t want.

Last year’s Paper Doll Thanksgiving week post, “Mom, Why Is There a Receipt Stuffed In The Turkey?“, fell right within a series on building a family file system.  If you’re a newer reader, or if Thanksgiving 2007 was so long ago that you’re thinking, as my friend Laura says, “I’ve slept since then“, pop over and review the information.  I stand by what I had to say about receipts, which will be good to reread before any Black Friday extravaganzas, but I’d like to offer few revisions to that post. 

Gas Price Watch may still be a good site to check before you head over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s condo, but when gasoline rates went WAY up in late summer, I found GasBuddy.com to be far more accurate and up-to-date.  As they say, your mileage may vary.

Last year, I also posted a link to Butterball, the turkey people.  (No, I’m not calling them turkeys, so please call off the lawyers.)  Whether you’re just like Paper Doll and look at cooking magazines merely for the pretty pictures, or your paper clutter is mainly from cookbooks and loose recipes and is practically professional in scope, you probably know about the Butterball Hotline (1-800-Butterball).  However, this is the 21st century, and they’ve gotten quite high tech. 

First, you can email your turkey conundrums to talkline@butterball.com. They’ll send you an electronic response you can save digitally for future years (and reduce your gravy-encrusted paper clutter).  Just create a Cooking subfolder in your email program.  Or, you can save the email as a text file on your hard drive, perhaps in a Holiday folder, Cooking subfolder.  Then, if you’ll be cooking elsewhere one year, your info will be portable on a nice flash drive—no paper needed!

But wait, there’s more!  If you go to Butterball and scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see where you can sign up for their Turkey Text Messages.  Roaming the chilly supermarket aisles in dismay is a thing of the past with these texts to keep you warm.  And finally–there’s a Butterball Web Chat November 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CT. 

And never let it be said that Paper Doll plays favorites with the food folks.  In case you didn’t follow my advice to encase your favorite recipes in plastic sheet protectors and now your sweetie’s favorite is under a sticky spill of sweetened condensed milk, here’s a link to various Thanksgiving/holiday cooking help lines and online help sites, including the USDA Meat & Poultry hotline, Fleischmann’s Yeast Baker’s Help Line, Land O’Lakes Holiday Bake Line, Hershey’s, and Libby’s Consumer Hotline. (Can Paper Doll get a shout out for “When it says Libby’s, Libby’s, Libby’s on the label, label, label”?  Yes, that nostalgic sound is country singer Sara Evans’ upgrade of the famous jingle.)

Oh, and with regard to Black Friday, as much as I discourage clutter-inducing conspicuous consumption, one of the missions of Paper Doll is to save you more of those little green pieces of paper.  So, if you’re already inclined towards wacky and wild bargain hunting, check out 2008 Black Friday bargains here and here.  But give a glance to Consumerist.com to make sure you’re not scammed now, or when the holiday season is over.

Like any good Thanksgiving table conversation, this post has gotten a little off-topic.  I’d like to talk to you about gratitude.  That quote from Paper Mommy at the start of this post seems simple; in fact, in this fast-paced world, it almost seems a shade too naive.  But let’s take a philosophical moment and think about having what you want, wanting what you have and not wanting what you don’t have. 

Not having what you don’t want is a real boon.  Stop to consider all of the toys you dreamed Santa would bring you, the cravings you had for those sugar-plum desires advertised on Saturday morning TV.  Now remember the time you caught the flu or the chicken pox or broke your leg and couldn’t go to the holiday party or field trip or prom.  Think of any tangible thing you ever wanted. Wouldn’t you have given even the shiniest of them up (in a flash!) to NOT have what you DIDN’T want–an icky bug?

Then, there’s having what we (think we) don’t want.  In this economy, when so much is uncertain, we’re encouraged to be thankful for what we do have.  From my little corner, the professional organizer perspective, my bright side comes from some new ways of looking at paper (even serious paper clutter) for which we can be grateful:

• Got piles of newspapers? 

Sure, those mountains and piles of newspapers and magazines cluttering up your home and car and office impact your productivity.  It’s my job as a professional organizer to help people scale back all that information clutter.  But, be thankful for free speech and a free press.  The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, among other things, ensures that the government cannot abridge our right to speak freely (even about the government) or infringe upon the freedom of the press.  (To my non-U.S. readers, please feel free to use the comment section to tell us about the free speech rights in your countries.  Gratitude is equal opportunity!)

• Do you find it hard to be thankful for the tax paperwork looming just a few months off? 

Paper Mommy always lovingly chides me if I complain about paying taxes, “I hope you pay lots and lots of taxes.  It means you’re making lots of money!”  However you feel about letting go of hard-earned money, let’s be thankful that those tax papers reflect the police, military and other peace officers who keep us safe.  (As they say, whether or not we support any military action, we always support our troops!)  Our tax dollars also pay for the other first responders, like the firefighters who have been selflessly battling those California wildfires, and the EMS paramedics who provide (pre-hospital) medical care to us when emergencies arise.

• Is the clutter of holiday paper–wrapping paper, shopping lists, receipts, grocery lists, Christmas cards, photographs–getting to you?

Even if you didn’t follow my advice about corralling those scraps and other holiday accoutrements, even if you’ve gone overboard and didn’t follow the guidelines I set out in Simplify the Season & Save Your Sanity, be of good cheer.  All this paper means you can be grateful you have loved ones for whom you’re inspired to make these holiday preparations.

I’m sure you can think of more types of paper, even paper clutter, for which you can be grateful.  Paper Mommy joked, “Don’t forget to be thankful for toilet paper.”  Well, even if your holiday is marred by stuffed toilets because some little toddler found the rolling rivulets of paper too entertaining,    you have to be thankful for those sweet little faces you love so dearly, and whose messy paper exploits you’ll forgive in an instant.  (And if you’re a plumber or are married to one, you can be thankful all those little holiday mishaps mean your profession will never need a Congressional bailout!)

And what about me?  Paper Doll is thankful for all the paper clutter, because without it, I’d have nothing to blog to you about except George Clooney.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) 

So, at my Thanksgiving table, I’ll be saying how grateful I am for paper clutter.  In fact, this great    Anne Taintor magnet practically says it for me.

I hope this Thanksgiving finds you and yours happy, healthy and thankful for what you do have (even if you have to find a new way of looking at it) and thankful for what you don’t have.  And let me say I’m very thankful for all my Paper Doll readers.

Jack (Trainer):  Well, have a drink with me.

Tess (McGill:  I can’t…What’s your name?

Jack:  No.  No names.  No business cards.  No “You must know so and so.”

Tess:  What is this?

Jack:  No rsums.  Let’s just meet like human beings…for once.

~Working Girl (1988)

Are you a professional, spending most of your time in the cubicles and mobile offices and cramped airplane seats of the traditional working world?  Or might you be a stay-at-home-parent who keeps so busy by rarely staying at home?  Either way, even if you don’t have occasion to proffer a business card, people keep giving them to you. Your banker.  The CPA you met on the plane who did such a good job explaining the mortgage crisis.  Joe (or Jill) the Plumber.  The professional organizer who helped you when your bag spilled all over the market floor.  The caterer who served those divine quiches at your friend’s anniversary party.

If you don’t already have a system in place to organize your business cards, how will you find the right person when you’re ready to take out that loan, select the right mortgage, stop the sink from leaking, solve your clutter crisis or get those amazing quiches for your own next shindig?  Without a system, all the cards you collect (and never, ever purge) will devolve into piles of clutter at the bottom of your bag, hide in your desk drawers and suit pockets, remain stuck as bookmarks in your bedtime novel and squish in the console of your car.  Without a system, vital information is merely clutter.

Perhaps you only care about keeping the data on the cards.  In such a case, a high-tech (or even mid-range tech) solution may work.  Or, you may be more visually inclined and thus tempted to keep actual business cards so that you can recall the logo design or color or retain the notes you scribbled on the reverse of the card. 

Options abound, depending on how high (or low) tech you wish to go, but you have to have a system:

No-tech, no-frills, low-cost

Long-time readers of the Paper Doll blog know how I like the least expensive options, as they tend to display simplicity and elegance.  So, once again, I’m singing the praises of using a simple three-ring binder with vinyl business card holder refill sheets, such as those made by Rolodex, Avery or Cardinal. 

Of course, for those of you who crave office supplies with panache, you can pick among the chic three-ring binders created for fashion-forward  fun at See Jane Work.  If you’re seeking an office-wide business card solution for heavy-duty users, you might want to pick from OnlineOrganizing.com’s line of sturdy Best Built Binders,     with translucent or opaque spines.

If standard three-ring binders take up too much real estate on your desk or shelf, you might also consider the various kinds of notebooks or binders designed for use as credit card and/or business card holders.

The key to all of the solutions above is that they get the business cards off the floorboards of your car or the bottom of your briefcase so you have a systematized (alphabetically, within categories) way to retrieve the information you need.  No more loose cards.  No more fat stacks of rubberbanded, backwards or upside-down, dog-eared cards, with the information almost as elusive as if you’d never received the cards in the first place. 

Notebook solutions such as these have the advantage of ease of use, but their portability is limited to how much you’re willing to schlep with you every time you leave the office.  (For those who strongly prefer paper over computer solutions, you could photocopy your business card notebook. You’ll be destroying those poor rainforests, but it’s always an option.)

Tech-free and fancy-free

Maybe Paper Doll is overly whimsical, but I adore this miniature filing cabinet, designed to hold business cards:

This mini filing cabinet, suitable for storing up to 800 business cards without mussing the corners, has fully-functional drawers and alphabetical dividers (although no hanging-folder rails).  It measures 4 1/4″ wide by 5 7/8″ deep by 6 1/8″ high, so it should fit easily on your desktop.  It even comes with a little LCD digital clock above the handle on the top file drawer, which I suppose means it’s not entirely tech-free.  (I won’t tell if you don’t.)

The main appeal of this option is, well, it’s visual appeal.  It’s delightful, and you can file alphabetically with relative ease.  (Categorical filing, unless you want to make your own tabs, will be difficult.)  You could make it portable by securing it with a rubberband, but Paper Doll advises against that.

Moderate-tech, moderate expense

The no-tech options require little expense and little mental effort, assuming you remember the Alphabet Song. (Go Elmo!)  However, if you prefer to retrieve your information electronically and love the simplicity of a Google-ized, keyword-based world, then you probably want an option that stores all of your data electronically.  The downside is that tech usually costs money.  The upside is that you may have already purchased the software you need, or you can acquire it at little or no cost.

If you’re an established professional, you may already have CRM (Customer/client Relationship Management) software like ACT loaded onto your computer.  If so, go use it!  (Hey, I’m Paper Doll, not Software Doll.)

Slightly lower-tech, without the options to keep track of so many details, are your typical email/productivity packages like Microsoft Outlook or Entourage.  I’m sure you’ve noticed when you’ve clicked “Add to Address Book” to maintain a contact’s email information, that there are multiple fields to add professional titles and other essential data.  Emails programs aren’t as elegant as those designed for CRM suites, but you’ll require far less training or experience to get started.

Finally, you can go old school and use a spreadsheet program like Excel, and create your own database with columns for contact names, business names, addresses, numbers, titles, business types or keywords (i.e., plumber, caterer, professional organizer)

The real advantages of such a simplified system are that:

1. You can create your own fields
2. You can import information from other, old contact programs
3. You can export information into your new, fancier contact databases as you grow.

Oh, you don’t have Excel?  Don’t have a spreadsheet program at all?  (Don’t have a computer and you’re using a public computer at the library?) NO PROBLEM!  You can use any of the free cloud computing options, including Google Docs‘ free, Excel-compatible spreadsheet program.  Use (or create) your Google account, create your database spreadsheet, and let Google save it and/or save it to your own hard-drive or flash-drive.  In the former case, you can update from anywhere; in the latter, you can have a web-free backup.

With all of these options, you still have to input all the data from the cards you receive.  If you lack the time or the inclination (and chances are good that you do, or you would have organized your business cards before now), hire a virtual assistant (or let your teenager earn car or curfew privileges with data entry time).  Remember, these business cards are doing you no good at the bottom of your briefcase, wedged under an old cough drop.

High tech, high(er) cost

This already-long post could go on forever if we got into the details of the nifty scanning options available for keeping track of the data on your business cards while maintaining the option to see the front and reverse of your card collection.  We’ll leave the details for a future series of high-tech paper management posts.  For now, we’ll just touch on a few stars of the business card scanning world:

CardScan is part of Newell Rubbermaid (you know, the folks who make the fabulous tubs without which we couldn’t live). Their suite of solutions involve PC- and Mac-compatible scanners and software, available at the personal, executive and team levels to scan all variety of information, including business cards, to maintain the integrity of the scanned data.  The personal version of the system syncs with Outlook, and the higher versions also sync with ACT,  Goldmine and Lotus Notes, so you can maintain your data the way you like.  CardScan also offers CardScan@YourService to provide secure online backup.

Neat is the maker of the NeatReceipts, NeatDesk and Neat Scan-to-Office scanners and software.  Paper Doll is a real fan of NeatReceipts, not only because it has the unfathomable skills to read incomprehensible receipts, business cards and other documents, parse the information and translate it into organized, sortable, usable displays, but their desktop and slim mobile scanners (the latter, about the size of a narrow 3-hole punch) are just so sleek! 

(Note:  The current “Advanced Release” Mac version of the software does not yet have the business card module.  If you were thinking of buying this for the holidays, their web site says a fully-featured Mac version will be available in early 2009; anyone who purchases the “Advanced Release” Mac version will get a free upgrade.)

Again, there are many hardware/software business card scanning solutions.  This is just a taste.  Although this option doesn’t generally require data entry (the scanner does that for you), you will want to check for accuracy in the translation of data, especially with cards bearing complex graphics that might obscure the text.

OK, that’s a lot to absorb. 

For right now, just get started collecting those loose business cards from every flat surface, desk and pocket.  As you find them, gather the cards in a zipper-lock style plastic bag.  (It doesn’t matter that this type of plastic is not of archival quality, as this is a short term storage solution.) 

Search your car, office, kitchen, bedroom, (gasp!) bathroom, and anyplace else your errant cards might hide.  Once you’ve collected all your cards, pick an organizing solution according to your preferences and technical skills/needs and get started on that data entry.  You’ll never know when you need a plumber.  Or some quiche.