ORGANIZING
Tips for
Tuesday
Welcome
to part two of “Win the War on Junk Mail!”
Last week I gave you some tips on how to reduce the amount of mail
coming in. While we’re waiting for the influx of mail to wane, we still need to
take steps to deal with the incoming.
1.
Go through the mail every day. It’s much
more manageable to work with one day’s mail than plow through a pile, so set
aside a few minutes each day to deal with it.
2.
Try to handle each piece of mail only once, or as little as possible. The quicker you deal with it, the quicker it’s
out of your life (and off your counter!)
- Start by opening
everything. I like to use a letter
opener because I feel it speeds up the process, not to mention that it saves
wear and tear on my fingers. (Some
people like to pitch junk mail without opening it, but if you do so you
risk getting rid of something important – like a check - that just looks
like junk mail.)
- As I open the mail I sort it
into three piles - bills that need to be paid, other things that need to
be dealt with in one way or another, and paper to be recycled.
Recycling:
I don’t want my
information to get into the wrong hands, so I remove my address, account
numbers, etc. before recycling. I recently
found a very nifty gadget to help speed up the process! Rather than using a shredder or tearing off
the private info and burning it (for those of us who live in the middle of
nowhere) I bought a “Guard your ID STAMP.”
I purchased mine from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for around $10 (minus a 20%
coupon, of course!) If you go to
purchase one, you may need to ask for it.
I found mine on a bottom shelf up by the cash registers.
As you can see, this self-inking stamp is solid symbols
and obliterates whatever is underneath it.
Now I just quickly stamp out any personal information and it’s ready for
the recycle bin!
Bills: If you have several come at once,
you may want to pay them and get it over with.
If you don’t want to mail them in right away, pencil in the date it
needs to be mailed (allowing a few days in transit) where the stamp goes. When it comes time to mail it, just cover up
the date with a postage stamp.
If your bills are staggered, it may be more expedient
to aside a specific place for these and schedule a time to take care of
them.
Other things: If at all possible, do what you need
to do as soon as you’re done sorting the mail.
It really doesn’t take long to clip a coupon or put a date on your
calendar, and once you take care of it, you no longer have it cluttering up
your house.
3.
Give the appearance with order. Rather
than leaving it piled up, put the things you don’t have time for into a
nice-looking basket or some similar container. Just make sure you put the earliest dates on
the top of the pile, and don’t wait too long to get back to it.
So
far, my counter is still looking good!
How about yours?
Blessings,
Lisa
.JPG)
Hi Lisa!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment on my blog! I read your story and am glad to be able to meet a new friend in this crazy blogosphere where the Lord is able to manifest himself quite nicely! I will follow as I am domestically challenged ( you may have gotten tha from my Husband post)! So I will look forward to your tips! In His Grace, Dawn