How to Organize Your Mail

Welcome to our 35 Days to an Organized Home Challenge! Today we’re discussing how to organize your mail efficiently to save you time and money!  This is a simple concept based on these principles. Plus, we have a You Tube video to help you learn even more, especially if you’re visual (like I am!)!

1. Designate one spot for your mail where you put nothing else.  This space needs to be completely and solely just for mail. Do not lay any other paperwork in this area.  This way your mail doesn’t get mixed in with other paperwork from work, your child’s school, etc.

2. Immediately throw out trash.  It’s best to remove trash immediately because it just adds to the clutter. If you don’t have time to actually sort your mail, you can still usually tell what is immediate trash. Throw those items out and lay the rest of your mail in the designated sorting area until you have time to actually sort.

3.  Sort as soon as possible.  Once you get a free moment (mine is usually after dinner or while dinner is cooking), begin sorting your mail into trash (if you haven’t already done this), shred, view later, pay/file, and record date. I’m very visual, so let me lay these out for you in order:

    a. Trash

                 b. Shred- I keep my shred bin near my other trash.

                 c. View later- Have a separated, designated area where you can place mail you want to view later! I show you my view later area in the video!

                 d. Pay/File- Immediately prepare outgoing bills, so that the payment stub is put back into the payment envelope and file the receipt.  Place this outgoing bill in an area where you will NOT forget about it! In the video I place it right on

my desk in plan view so I know it is ready to be paid and a check needs to be written.

                 e. Record date- If there are any dates included in your mail (i.e. party invites with a date, appointment reminders, etc.), immediately place these on your calendar.

 4. Once you have this system in place, maintain maintain, maintain!!!

Hopefully these tips will help you develop your own mail system and cut down on your clutter!

Check out our other Organizing Posts!

35 Days to an Organized Home (All Lessons on One Blog Post + Our STARTER VIDEOS!!!)