Five days a week, paper mail comes to your mailbox. Your letter carrier does not distinguish what is irrelevant and what is important. That’s your job, but you are succeeding?
The worse case I’ve come across was someone who had not opened mail (including the flyers) in over six months. When we finally opened and sorted through the piles, we discovered that there was over $2000.00 in uncashed cheques.
How much are your unsorted piles of paper mail costing you?
On the other end of the spectrum is the ideal – your junk mail automatically disappearing into your recycling bin, all your bills paid on time, and all your statements and information filed for reference.
Most people are somewhere in between these two extremes.
Create a Transition Place
Often it is the lack of a designated “transition place” that causes mail to pile up. We know the moment we touch something we want to keep it, or have processed it but we tend to set them down any old place. This is how our piles start.
The key to attacking your paper mail is designate transitional homes for your piles of information – a safe place to keep it until you can act on it.
Divide Paper Mail into Categories
Here are some transition piles to begin with:
- Mail to open.
- Bills to pay.
- Statements to file.
- Calls to make.
- Tasks to do.
- Specific projects.
The next step is to determine a location in your home or office to accommodate these piles of information. Consider your space and your work style:
- File folders in drawers or in a hanging file frame on a desk.
- Mail sorters or in/out trays.
- Designated drawers in your desk (or if in the home, in your kitchen).
You are now armed with a new way to manage the ongoing onslaught of your incoming mail. Sort it immediately into its appropriate action holding spots instead of creating a trail of piles throughout your office and home. It is not about acting now. It is about knowing where to find things when you are ready to act on them.
If you need help sorting your mail and getting a process in place, contact the Out of Chaos team through our website.
Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay
I am a horder !! Mostly of paper but, there are other things too. Similar to the client in this article, I have left unopened mail ALL over our house. As well, I’m pretty sure I have EVERY catalogue that’s arrived here in the last five years, stashed safely away for the day when I can go through them and look for ‘ideas’ or clipouts or whatever!
Last night, my husband reminded me that our daughter would be two soon and we WOULD need a place or two for the extended family to sit down for a celebration dinner. He made me a deal, he’d play with Madeleine while I went through bags of paper. AND, he’d bring me the bags so, that I wouldn’t get overwhelmed by how many there were. I am a VERY lucky horder !!
So, as I made my way through two large bags (there are more but, we try to stick to the 45 minute rule) of silly stuff (bills that had been paid months ago, flyers for sales that were over before my daughter was born), it occured to me that there was NOTHING in my stash of catalogues that I couldn’t find on the ‘net when I actually needed it. They did NOT need to take up two entire shelves in my craft room.
Today was recycling day, and I’m sure the sanitation guys ‘hate’ me but, I filled that blue box all the way to the top. Good-bye Victoria’s Secret, Coldwater Creek, even Lee Valley Tools.
This weekend, my husband is going to recycle the rest (I couldn’t have them fearing my home for the next month, or two) and, he’ll be taking my House and Home mags with him too.
I still have a LOT of paper, all of it beautiful and ready to craft with … now that I can get back into my craft room. I’ve also kept ALL of my Martha Stewart mags (from the premier issue) because I DO refer to them frequently, and they are stored carefully because of that.
Baby steps, right? Thank-you
We’re getting there.
Congratulations! What an empowering story. You are completely on the right track and I am thrilled to hear that you have adopted many principles that I have written about.
Your experiences will be a source of inspiration to everyone!
From the buddy system that you have with your husband, to the 45 minute increments, to the reward of working towards a celebration dinner as motivation, and the ability to get back to your love of crafting.
Well done!