Here we are. Day 5 of Simplify Your Life Week. Today’s Tip: Corral the mail and handle it immediately. No more messy piles, no more bills thrown out with the junk mail, no more 3 foot high piles of old catalogs and magazines.
If you’re following yesterday’s advice, you’re taking a few minutes each day to consolidate and update your to-do list. While you are at it, take a few minutes each day to go through the mail.
If you’re following yesterday’s advice, you’re taking a few minutes each day to consolidate and update your to-do list. While you are at it, take a few minutes each day to go through the mail.
Set yourself a few simple rules:
- Touch each piece of mail only once (this is the ideal).
- Recycle junk mail immediately.
- If you know you won’t order anything from a catalog, recycle it immediately. If you’ve gone 6-12 months without ordering from the catalog, cancel it. You can always re-subscribe at a later date or find the information online. If you plan to order something in the catalog, hop online and order right away, or flag the page and schedule time to go to the store.
- Deal with bills immediately. Either pay them right then and there, or place bills in a designated place and pay them on a scheduled date.
- If you subscribe to magazines, have a designated place to put them and commit to reading them within the month. If you find you routinely do NOT read a particular magazine, save yourself the money and cancel the subscription. If you really want to read a particular future issue, buy it or read it at the library.
I have two cloth baskets- one for myself and one my husband- that sit on our kitchen island. Mail is sorted into his and hers immediately and we take care of our own. When company comes over, these baskets areeasy to stack and stash away for the duration of the visit.
There are great wall hanging solutions out there as well that allow a slot for each family member. Especially in homes with children, this provides each person a place to put their mail, magazines, papers, permission slips, etc. Magazine organizers and wall pockets work well for this. You can find the ones pictured below at The Container Store.
There are great wall hanging solutions out there as well that allow a slot for each family member. Especially in homes with children, this provides each person a place to put their mail, magazines, papers, permission slips, etc. Magazine organizers and wall pockets work well for this. You can find the ones pictured below at The Container Store.
In addition to our cloth baskets, we have one of these in our mudroom to collect the weekly coupon circulars, and magazine articles about places we want to visit.
Again, the ideal is to touch each piece of mail only once, and you can do that by dealing with it right away. Good luck!
Until next time…
Missy
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