Oh, you evil, evil man...

I saw that!

I've been trying to get a card file on ebay and have lost out on three that I bid on. Frustrating, but I'm coming to the conclusion I was bidding on the wrong ones, anyway.

The whole time I've been bidding, I've wondered how many GTDers I'm bidding against, and if I know any of 'em. Grrrr!

Aside from eBay, I was in an antique shop in southern Virginia this weekend that had a ton of nice solid oak library card catalogs. I even took one on a test drive, and my index cards fit perfectly. Too bad I didn't have a way to transport one of them. I was proud of myself for showing restraint. :)

Perhaps I'm fortunate I didn't get one of the ones I bid on. I've since become convinced I need a double-drawer, and even more recently a four-drawer catalog.

In the meantime I bought a heavy cardboard one and hate it. Which is one reason I realized the single drawer wasn't going to work well. It might hold the quantity, but I really want to be able to separate them out -- personal from writing, and possibly broken down in more ways. Because while the A-Z thing is perfect for the reference file, my index cards need to be organized in a better way.

The great news is, I bought a card catalog on ebay tonight.

The, um, ironic news is that I have now discovered a new source for such toys, a library supply site:

http://www.demco.com/

I've just started exploring it. Search on "cards" and you'll find a ton of stuff.

These are so great -- I just need to figure out how to use them:

Darn. Links aren't working. Okay, go to demco (see link above) and find "brite pockets!"

Okay, I ended up getting a 6-drawer card catalog. It arrived yesterday and I already love it, even though I've barely begun getting it set up.

I'm going to use one drawer for my teaching -- I'm going to put lesson plans, lists of handouts, etc. in it, plus ideas for new classes I may develop, workshops I teach, and so forth.

I'm going to use one for my writing projects.

I'm going to use one for my home projects (which are many and complex, as we have a lot of stuff that needs to be done around here). Some will be "contractor" kinds of things, where we're having to replace a couple of walls, put down hardwood floors (maybe), etc. Others will be GTD issues around the house, clearing clutter. I want to do my kitchen the same way I did my office -- empty everything from the cabinets and countertops, and then start over! (Gads, I've been "planning" to do that since last March and still haven't tackled it.)

I'm going to use one to store blank cards.

That leaves one that is undesignated so far, but that could always change!