Saturday, July 28, 2007

Junk Mail

Last week my brother asked me to pick up his mail for him while he and his family went away for a few days vacation. He was going to be gone for 5 days so I figured if I picked it up on the third day he was gone that would be sufficient. When I got to his mailbox and opened it up I was overwhelmed with the amount of mail stuffed into that mailbox. Interestingly, that was not the only mail either. His front door was littered with door hangers advertising pizza, fast food restaurants, and a phone book. I had to scratch my head at where all of this mail has come from...after all, it was only two days worth of mail.

Of course I didn't sift through his mail but it did appear to me that much of it was junk. How did I know this? Because a lot of it looked very familiar to the junk mail I get! What a coincidence. I returned the mail to him and had to laugh because I now realize that he gets way more junk mail than I do.

Which led me to my post for the day and general question to ponder.

How do you sort your mail and keep it from running your household?

Here are a few suggestions on what has worked for me:

1. Sort and discard your mail as soon as you remove it from the mailbox. In fact, many people I know including yours truly sort their mail over their garbage cans. Throw away anything that is junk related that you will never be interested in.

2. While you are sorting maintain a few piles. The first pile should be for bills and things that need to get addressed and or paid. The second pile should be for magazines and/or catalogs that you would like to read. The third pile is the garbage can.

3. Bills should go straight to your office or computer room and paid or put in a proper inbox for review.

4. Magazines and/or catalogs should be put in a rack or on a table where you can easily access them. Remember that most catalogs can be viewed online so if that is the case you might want to throw the catalog out and do your shopping online.

5. If you follow these general tips you will be amazed at how easily you can keep yourself organized with your mail.

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