Sift Your Mail

This is an area that I still struggle with. Intellectually I know that our household has way more GoesInTa (in terms of mail) than what we can effectively read. The net effect here is that mail tends to stack up whether it is the political advertisements and the latest voters pamphlet, that of course I need to keep so my wife and I can be informed voters or it is a coupon for a restaurant that we were planning to visit.

Here is a simple solution that requires you be brutally honest when dealing with papers.

RULE: Sift through the mail immediately after retrieving it.
The key is to place different types of mail in their respective categories.
These are mine; yours may be different.

• Bills to be Paid
• Things to Read Later (magazines and such)
• Circulars and short term reading (things with immediate impact)
• Coupons and offers
• To be filed (statements, etc. that don't need to hang around)
• Recycle (you do recycle, don't you?)
• Shred (sensitive items)
• Garbage (you know - the 101st AOL tin with CD)

You need to have receptacles for the other categories similar to having a Garbage Can. You wouldn't live without a garbage can so why live without a place to put your "To Be Filed". (We bought cool storage boxes from Storables and keep them on our staircase). The only exception to this is a cool decorative wine box we use for coupons and offers.