How To Clean Sweep: Delivery Menus Folder

Doing a clean sweep is a simple and efficient way to organize your things. A clean sweep means cleaning out a whole area such as a bookshelf or a refrigerator, and putting back only the things that are necessary.

I’ve experienced that a clean sweep is better than taking out a few things at a time. Better to see the empty space for what it is! It encourages me to really limit what I return. I’ve done this clean sweep for my dresser, my son’s closet and his toy shelves. All the pre-loved stuff that didn’t get returned will be donated.

A clean sweep applies not only to rooms or shelves, but to documents. It was time do a clean sweep with our family’s delivery menus folder because it’s a big mess!

Woohoo! Scroll down to see the finished project.

A Clean Sweep is Pretty Neat!

We’ve accumulated so much flyers over the past years. when we get our delivery orders, they come with a bunch of flyers which we just stick into that blue folder. It’s become a hassle leafing through the pages, looking for that one flyer we have our mind set on but then not finding it because of the mess. Ha! It was time for a clean sweep.

We used a Clear Book to hold a bunch of flyers. Upon taking out all the contents though, I found a bunch more stuff than just flyers. There were two magazines inside too!

Messy Insides

Once the folder was emptied out, I began organizing the flyers by merchant. Here’s the run-down of flyers I found in this messy menu folder:

KFC – 12
Pizza Hut – 8
Shakey’s – 7
Red Ribbon – 5
Max’s – 5
Kitaro – 5
Chowking – 5
Yellow Cab – 4
Greenwich – 3
Magoo’s – 3
Tapa King – 3
Wendy’s – 2
Gateau de Manille – 2
Savory – 2
Ninang’s Pancit Malabon – 2
Felicity – 2
Jollibee – 2
Pancake House – 1
Kenny’s – 1
McDonald’s – 1
Mongkok – 1
Shi Lin – 1
Mang Inasal – 1
Bacolod Inasal – 1
Puffs & Stuff – 1
Estrel’s – 1

So many things cramped into that folder!

Aside from flyers, I also found:

A bunch of recipes printed or handwritten on scraps of paper – 12
Newspaper clippings on tips for job searching – 3
Magazines – 2
A San Miguel Food Club newsletter from 2006 – 1
A random photo of a flower in our front yard – 1

WHEW! A lot of the flyers were outdated (some were 5 years old!). Some merchants we never really bought from because they didn’t deliver in our area, but for some reason we had their flyers. A lot of this were discarded.

I threw out everything except flyers from merchants we like, and only kept ONE flyer from each merchant. The random photo of a flower I stuck on our refrigerator door. It’s so pretty and it’s one of my Dad’s blossoms.

As for the recipes, I placed them in our Recipes Folder. It’s another clear book full of recipes — I’ll leave it to my sister to sort through that since she uses it more than anyone else at home.

After the clean sweep, I put the blue folder aside. It has seen better days. I had an unused clear folder in my room, so used that instead for our new delivery menus folder.

Washi tape labeling

Only one flyer per page is allowed for neatness! I also labeled the top of each page with the merchant’s name written on washi tape. It’s easier to leaf through the pages that way.

Mmmmmm pan pizza… Mmmmm thin and crispy…..

We have a loyalty card for Pizza Hut. To avoid misplacing it, I taped it on the inner front cover. Should we have additional loyalty cards in the future, they will be taped in this same space as well. Easy access.

Loyalty cards on the inner front cover.

Voila! Done!

Of course, after proudly showing it off to my Mom, she asked me, “Are all the pizzas together?” Haha! I come from a family of OC’s (obsessive compulsives), see?! I DID want to sort the merchants by type of food sold (pizzas first, then all chickens, then fastfood, then Chinese…) but my Clear Book didn’t have detachable pages. NEXT TIME!!!

At least for now our delivery menus folder has been organized! Woohoo! Clean Sweep: Delivery Menus Folder is a mission accomplished!

Next Clean Sweep Project: Our Shoe Cabinet!

Are you doing any decluttering in the new year? Try this Clean Sweep tip! Share your tips too!

Hi! I'm Toni Tiu, and I've been blogging at at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.