Managing Your Mail
Brought to you by Joan Kosmachuk,
Professional Organizer and Personal Life Coach

“I believe in opening mail once a month, whether it needs it or not..” —Bob Considine

Bills, statements, flyers, catalogues, coupons, magazines, subscription renewals, letters, post- cards, greeting cards, free credit card offers, free samples, tax information and receipts, packages…. and on and on comes the mail. Some mail we want or need and most of it we don’t have any use for at all. We can’t, however, ignore the mail we don’t want because it keeps on coming in and soon piles up and takes over our homes. We can’t toss the mail we don’t want because we know that identity theft is a big problem in North America so we need to first make sure that there’s no key info. that needs to be shredded. And, with environmental concerns we have to make a concerted effort to recycle as much of the paper as we can. If you have gotten into the habit of setting your mail aside to deal with later and/or you travel a fair bit you’ve probably got a large pile of mail that you should be dealing with. So here’s a little help to get through your piles and set up a system to keep your mail moving in the future:

1. Macro-sort your piles of Mail:
Set up several small boxes on the floor or table next to your piles of mail. You can label each box according to your most common categories. Suggested categories might be “Bills,” “Statements,” “Coupons,” “Magazines/Catalogues,” “Correspondence,” “Tax Info,” etc.

Next, pick up a pile of unopened mail and quickly toss each piece into the appropriate box (most of us can tell from the return address or look/size of the envelope what is enclosed even before opening it). If you have multiple mail recipients in the house you may want to have a box for each person’s name into which you will put their personal mail for them to sort on their own.

2. Micro –Sort your boxes of Mail:
Once you’ve macro-sorted all your mail, you can then go box by box and deal with each individual category of mail starting with the most important one. At this point you’ll want to have your trashcan, recycling bin and shredder handy. You will also want 3 new boxes, trays or files to manage your opened mail. Label these: “Read,” “Act,” File”.

Next, open each piece of mail (a sharp letter opener will make this job go more quickly). Toss, recycle or shred any paper you don’t need. Place all papers that you do need into one of the three categories above. Anything you need to “Read” goes in the “read” pile (don’t read it now, you’ll get bogged down). Anything you need to take action on goes in the “Act” pile (which you will deal with later) and anything that is for future reference (bank statements, tax receipts etc.) Will go in your “File” pile for filing later.

3. Act on it:
Once all your mail is micro-sorted into Read, Act and File piles you are ready for this next step. Take the “Act” pile and sort these items into smaller to-do folders. These might include, “Bills to pay”, “Calls to make”, “Response required” etc. If you are able to act on these items now, do so. Otherwise, decide on a time and date to deal with each of these to-do folders and put this commitment into your calendar.

4. File It:
Take your “File” pile over to your filing cabinet and file these papers in the corresponding files. Even a large pile can be filed in under 15 minutes if you have a filing system in place.

5. Read It:
Finally, divide your reading material into convenient groupings to have handy in places where you typically read. This may be placing a small pile on your nightstand for reading before bed or putting some reading material into your briefcase to read on your daily commute or during your lunch break. We usually don’t have time to read everything so be sure to keep only those things that you really need or want to read and will be able to get to reading within a month.

6. Repeat It:
To keep your mail under control, a daily or at least weekly micro sorting is necessary. Set up a permanent mail sorting station with a Read, Act, File, Toss or Shred system for yourself and others in your household to use on a regular basis.

7. Avoid It:
There are lots of ways to reduce the amount of mail that comes into your home. Choose auto-debit or on-line billing options and request paperless statements. Cancel unwanted catalogues. Opt-out of credit card options. Cancel magazine and newspaper subscriptions that you just don’t have time to read.

If your piles of mail have taken over your home or office to the point of overwhelm, consider hiring a professional organizer to help get you back on track. To hire the services of Joan Kosmachuk, please email your request to info@simpleeffects.com or call 617-784-0707.

If you found the information in this newsletter to be of value to you, please feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues; you'll be helping them simplify their lives.

Visit my new blog site at http://openhouse.homegoods.com/index.php/author/joank