Organizing Your Mail and Paperwork

If you collect your mail at the end of a long day, chances are that you will have no desire to sort through it at that moment. The good news is that you don't have to. The only thing you need to do for that moment is designate your mail to one contained area. Next, you will determine a day or evening during the week that you can devote a little time to sort through your mail. Lastly, you will assign or file away your mail. Sounds easy right? It is, as long as you follow these tips:

Designate Your Mail to a Contained Area:
If you have a desk, I urge you to use that space. Otherwise, any unused counter space will work, two feet is ideal. Using a basket or a tray is a great place to temporarily hold your mail. A word of advice, do not use anything too big, otherwise it will be too tempting to throw a couple week's worth of mail into it. The key is that we want to only temporarily store our mail in the basket or tray.

Tips to Eliminate Junk Mail:
Determine When You Will Sort Through Your Mail :
Realistically, determine when you will have a solid uninterrupted 20-30 minutes. Often times, the morning can be a good time. I would also suggest choosing somewhere in the middle of the week, incase any of the mail requires your immediate attention. Also Remember, if you put this off until next week, the pile is only going to increase, and you are only going to get more overwhelmed. We want to avoid this.

Assign or File Your Mail:
Sorting through your mail is the first step to conquering clutter, but if you don't have a place to assign the mail to, you are defeating the purpose and will only create more disorganization. In order to avoid this, you will want to separate your mail and paperwork into three categories:

• To Do:
  This holds anything that requires your immediate attention. For example; bills, kid's school forms, etc.
• Pending:
  This hold anything that does not need your immediate attention, but that you will need to address at a later date. For example; subscriptions, shipment confirmations of products to receive, etc.
• To File:
  This holds anything that needs to be filed or designated elsewhere. For example; subscription confirmations, account updates or catalogs.

The easiest way to make use of these categories is by utilizing a file sorter . Designate the first shelf for "To Do", the second for "pending" and the third for "To File." The fourth involves the garbage can, or recycling bin if you have one. This is your "Trash" category designated for your junk mail. Before you throw anything out that contains your personal information, you will want to protect your identity by considering using a free standing shredder or for a more affordable option, shredder scissors.

Where To File Your Mail & Paperwork:
There are a few different options available that I highly recommend considering, otherwise your mail and paperwork can end up stuffed in a drawer, which is what we want to avoid.

• File Cabinet:
  This is a great life-time investment to easily organize and store your files and important paperwork.
• An Expandable File:
  This is a great multi-purpose product to either store important paperwork (you can create labels too) or to store magazine articles. Rather than keeping the entire magazine, just clip out and store the important articles that you would want to refer back to.
• Security File Case:
  This is a great idea to store items that you want to ensure protection from potential water or fire damage.
• Catalog/Magazine Holders:
  This is an attractive way to store your catalogs and magazines. To avoid an overflow, routinely go through them and discard any unused or expired items.

Tips to Decrease Junk Mail:
To decrease future junk mail, contact The Direct Marketing Association to help get your name off of the following lists: mailing, telemarketing, email and marketing. In addition, you can contact the National Opt Out Center, 888-567-8688 to request your name be removed from any lists that the credit-reporting agency may sell to direct-mail companies. Finally, to eliminate your current junk mail, contact the customer service number found on either the catalogs, magazines or letters and request that you be taken off their mailing list.

Remember that while we can't always control the influx of mail we receive, especially junk mail, we certainly can control the amount of clutter than can accumulate through designating, sorting and filing.