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 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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