Mail Organization

Today's the last organizational post of the 31 Day Challenge, tomorrow I'll do a wrap up. This is sort of bittersweet!

"Mail! It was called mail!" Name that movie!

(You've Got Mail, it's my favorite.)

Mail and paperwork are an area that many people struggle with. My mom included. (Hi, Mom!) This is not an area in which I struggle, so I thought I'd pass on my process.

Our mail carrier usually puts our mail in a small box just outside our front door, which happens to be about two feet from our recycle bin. I stand there for a second flipping through the mail to see if anything needs to immediately go to recycling. I'm sure you all have mail like this. Grocery flyers, oil change postcards, and other direct mail rarely make it into our house.

I take in what wasn't tossed out inside. I typically process our mail by standing at the corner of our island. I'm one step from the trash can and just in front of our "junk drawer" where I keep our letter opener. (I always thought those things were silly until I started using them at work to open the copious amount of mail. Now it's one of my favorites. I open ALL THE MAIL! even if its not mine!)  I zip the little opener through all the envelopes and start making piles.

Pile 1 - Bills and things that need attention
Pile 2 - Bryan's mail
Pile 3 - trash

Once sorted the trash goes into the trash can and I deposit Bryan's mail on top of his dresser. If I don't have time to handle any paperwork at that moment I leave it on top of my dresser. We both take time about once a week to clear off these spaces.

This mail process takes maybe 2-3 minutes. Not long at all. It's so much easier to process the mail each day instead of letting it pile up and then taunt you.

How do you handle your mail?