Sorting the Mail – Week 1 Organizing Tip
This is the first of our weekly tips for getting and staying organized. Each tip will be short and easy to do, but will offer immediate organization and decluttering benefits.
Let’s start with something easy to simply our life for the first week of 2009 – organizing the mail.
We all get tons of mail whether we want it or not – mostly junk mail and catalogs. If we don’t keep it under control, it is easy to lose the important mail we do want (well, maybe we don’t want the bills, but we definitely don’t want to lose them either).
Start by designating a specific place that all mail should go when it is brought into the house from the mail box. If there are several people in the house that get mail regularly, set up desk organizers such as stackable trays, or slotted dividers and label with the name of each person. Be sure to include one for “Bills”.
Next to the mail station, place a recycling bin with a shredder, if possible. As soon as the mail is brought in – shred or toss all the junk mail into the recycling bin. You are going to eventually throw it away, so do it immediately to prevent clutter. Then the sort real mail into the appropriate places.
Also, designate a place for magazines and catalogs you want to look browse through or read before recycling, but don’t let them pile up. Before you add a new magazine or catalog, move the out-of-date ones to the recycling bin. If there is a particular magazine article you want to keep, cut it out and put it in a folder labeled “reading materials”. Take the folder with you to read when you’re stuck in traffic or waiting in the doctor’s office. Once you’ve read the article, decide what you want to do with it – and do it. Recycle it if you don’t want to keep it. If you do, file it or start a notebook for reference articles.
By having everything you need to sort through the mail each day, it will only take a few seconds, you will have eliminated a source of clutter, and you will know where to easily find the mail you want when you need it. This is not something that you can do once though – you will want to make it a daily practice.
If you hav other tips or ideas for handling mail that work for you, please share by leaving a comment.
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