Controlling your mail clutter take a change of habit. Cut clutter every day by opening mail over the recycle bin, and filing bills, forms or other documents - even magazines and catalogs - immediately where they need to go.
Your mail pile will never get out of hand if you tackle it every single day. Sound difficult? In my home, it takes me less than 5 minutes to sort through the mail, and that includes filing anything necessary too. Here's a quick system that anyone can do:
1) Get the mail out of your mailbox every day there is a mail delivery. This may sound basic, but some people allow their mail to pile up for days.
2) Open your mail over the recycling container, using an envelope opener. Immediately discard anything that you consider to be junk. I've done my own in-home study for the past month, and over 40% of the mail I received during that time was junk mail.
3) Separate your bills from the rest of the mail. Open each bill, keeping only the bill itself and the payment envelope. (Yes, you can glance at the other inserts, but only keep them if you're truly, absolutely, positively sure they're important enough to keep for further reading.) Tuck the bill(s) into the payment envelope(s), put an address label and stamp on the payment envelope and then store all bills in your bill paying system until you're ready to pay them.
4) All other mail should be sorted as follows:
a) Mail that belongs to someone else: Distribute to appropriate family members. A good system for this is to have an in basket or incoming mail file folder for each family member. Make each person responsible for retrieving his or her mail from the basket or folder.
b) Mail that needs to be filed for future reference:
Immediately file in your To Do system or your filing cabinet.
c) Mail that needs to be read: Place in your To Be Read basket or file folder, and read that mail every single day so it doesn't get out of hand. When you're done reading a particular piece of mail, jot any notes necessary into your calendar or planner, and then file the paper in your To Do system, your filing cabinet, or the recycle container if you don't need it anymore.
d) Magazines and Catalogs: This is an entire subject in itself, but just be sure you have a designated place in your home to store these magazines and catalogs so they're easy to find and enjoy.
by Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now! http://www.getorganizednow.com FREE Get Organized Now! Idea-Pak and E-zine, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your office and your life, at the Get Organized Now! Web site.
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