Are you tired of sifting through piles of paper to find that one crucial piece of paper?
Somewhere in our family video archives, there is a video of me attempting to clear our bar on Christmas Eve.
The bar was built with the intent of having a place to eat meals. Instead, it had turned into a horizontal clutter catcher that collected every single paper that came into the house. Often, never to be seen again.
The paper struggle is real!
One of the culprits is mail.
Tons and tons of mail. Even in this electronic age, there is still plenty of mail delivered to our home.
A good mail routine is an excellent first step in controlling paper clutter.
A mail routine needs to be easy, fast and effective.
This routine typically takes less than three minutes per day.
Daily, when the mail arrives, divide it into 3 categories:
High Priority
Bills and anything that is time sensitive goes into one pile.
Low Priority
A second pile is for anything that can be dealt with at a later time.
The low priority file is for things that need filed and are not really time sensitive.
Shred / garbage / recycle
The third pile is for anything you need to shred or toss.
Decide how you want to organize the piles you are keeping.
File folders are my personal preference but baskets work too. Make sure that what ever you use to keep your piles organized is in a location near where you sort the mail.
Put the two piles you are keeping in the appropriate folder or basket, shred anything that contains personal information and toss the rest.
Do not complicate the mail routine.
Adding too many things to the routine will make it complicated and likely derail the entire process.
The goal is to keep the mail from becoming paper clutter.
Designate a day and time to pay the bills and deal with both the high and low priority folder or basket.
Failing to have a designated time to deal with the paper you have kept will result in piles of paper clutter. It may be organized paper clutter, but it is still paper clutter.
Do you want to eliminate paper clutter in your home?
Begin by developing and implementing an easy mail routine.
Want another paper clutter post?
Check out this related post: Easily Organize and Store Kids’ School Work
updated 04/05/2023