Paper piles... I have them and want to get rid of them! But how to do it? That's the question. I always have good intentions of just going through the mail and throwing out the junk mail. I do that when I get the mail, but usually someone else in the family gets it and just plops in on the pile. My other problem is that there are often times that I need to refer back to something or pay a bill later. I have tried putting those items on the fridge because if it's outta sight, then it's outta mind and I forget about it. But then the fridge gets plastered with stuff and the counter next to the fridge gets piled high and looks nasty. I've tried filing systems, but can't seem to keep up with them. I think it'd be easier if it was just hubby and I, but I've got papers for the kids too. Things that we all need to keep, but no system in place to keep them organized. I really need some help on getting all these piles organized. I've told myself that this week is the week I get rid of the paper piles and get organized. I plan to put on a show and do some de-cluttering, shredding and organizing each day. I need something simple and straightforward that I can keep up with. If it's not simple, I'll give up after a week or two. What do you do with all the papers that come through the door? Do you struggle like me and pile them up, or do you have working system to purge and organize? I'm open to any and all suggestions.
I was just looking at our junk mail pile. It is huge!! If I get the mail, I will rip up the junk and toss it right in the recycle can so it never even makes its way inside my home. But I'm the only one who does this, and I'm not the best at remembering to check the mail. So it tends to pile up quickly. If it's papers that have personal info - I shred like you do. We have opted for mostly email receipts and bill paying - so the amount of bills we get via mail is nearly nil, but some things are unavoidable and have to be mailed. I have a tiny letter organizer that I keep on the desk area in the kitchen - things like coupons to stores, or things that I think we might need within the next 2 weeks. The occasional paper bill goes in there too. I have a small filing area in the kitchen desk. So papers that I think I need to keep get filed. But I really try to minimize that. By the door to the garage, is a magnetic board - and anything that needs attention : kids' medical form/physicals, registration paperwork for sports/activities, etc go there and I have trained myself to look at the board when I leave the house to see if I need anything, since it is right near the door. These tend to be "date specific" things that I only need "the day of" registration/"the day of" the medical appointment/or "the day of" the event. I hate dealing with the junk/mail pile because it's time consuming and a boring chore. There's really no avoiding it and I haven't really found a way to simplify. I do tend to tackle it while I'm cooking. There's always that bit of downtime when you are sitting around waiting for this or that to cook before you move onto the next step - so I try to do it as a multitasking thing rather than it's own chore that I have to carve time out of my day for. Or I mull through the junk when the kids get home and we are all gathered in the kitchen talking about our day. In this day and age ... it amazes me how much stuff still gets mailed on a daily basis.
Most of the junk mail goes straight from the doormat into the recycling. We have binders for financial stuff that is kept for two years and anything older gets shredded and composted. I normally do that bit once a year or when the binders get to full to add this month's bills or bank statements in. I have 3 boxes, one for each child, that important letters, school stuff and medical stuff go in. Once the box is too full it gets purged. One small sideboard is for current stuff, e.g. bills newsletters, invitations etc. once it's no longer current it goes in the recycling or the relevnat binder/box. I double check that pile the end of each month to purge it. Everything else is the responsibility of the person it's addressed to. Our ruling is if it's still lying around after a month then it obviously isn't important and it goes in the recycling. In the UK we have something called the postal preference service. It cut down our junk mail considerably when we registered with it.
I'm an organized person by nature. So... we have one pile of stuff that I sort of don't know what to do with, so it sits. "If it fits, it sits!" It's literally a small/medium binder clip of things. Most of the time I get mail, then sort/file, trash or keep. I do it immediately, or it won't get done and pile up. I'm a simple person. So... bills go in the to be paid drawer, school stuff is filed with whichever kid it is, DH gets his stuff to sort/file/trash, and flyers and junk tossed. As the kids get older, I'll figure out something similar for them like DH, who has a drawer in a cabinet by the front door. He is responsible for the upkeep, lol.... it's a drawer, so I don't have to see it!
I don't have much helpful to say because I'm sure I don't do anything you haven't heard before, and I struggle with piles too. We just have to keep on top of them. I am the one most likely to bring in the mail in my house, so that helps. And we homeschool and don't do a lot of stuff on paper, so that minimizes the paper too. I have a file folder where bills and receipts wait for payday, and other folders for storing financial paperwork, warranties, etc. But still, I have paper piles on my desk. A year ago, I started scanning a lot of stuff into Evernote, thinking I could start using it more regularly and get rid of the piles. But I still haven't gotten into a good routine with that. I think if I forced myself to always take care of papers at a set time every week, that would help. But I haven't wanted to do that yet.
I'm an OCD Organizer too- so we don't have piles. lol! The Junk mail goes straight into the recycling. Magazines or ads that I know the hubby or kids would like to see get set in our tray on the coffee table (which I then throw in the recycling about a week or so later!) Bills get filed in the 'to be paid' organizer in my office. Kids' stuff either gets put up on the huge cork board in the office or signed & right back into their backpacks to return to school. OCCASIONALLY- if something needs attention, but I don't have the time right then- it gets set onto my desk. It's the visual reminder to take care of it! I do keep a 'to-be-filed' pile on the filing cabinet, but it's not usually very big & I file stuff pretty much right away. I think it's helpful that hubby is also a ocd, clean counters type of personality, so I have no problems with his stuff. The kids tho- they know their projects need to either be finished & put up somewhere or stored in their desk or bins. lol! Now if we're talking scrapbook paper piles....
Thanks for the ideas @jenn mccabe @jk703 @michelepixels @amien1 @Angela Toucan - I wish the US had an option to not get all the junk mail. For the most part, my house is really clean. It's just the paper piles that get me. After I got sick last year, I let things get out of control and now it's a HUGE pile! Also, I don't necessarily have a place for everything. I can't get mad at the family for not putting their things away if I don't have a place for them to put them, right! I like the idea of a drawer or folder for each person, so I'll look into that once I cut the pile down to just what we need to keep. I really should force myself to deal with the papers right when they come in. I'm home most of the day, so I should make getting the mail part of my routine, but I haven't. I have a file drawer in the kitchen and a magnet board like some of you have mentioned, but I hate filing. I really need to purge the piles and folders and start over. I like the idea of a small action area for things that need to be dealt with in the short-term. I also like the multi-tasking idea of purging while cooking too. I tend to turn on a show while cooking, but going through a pile of papers and filing them would be more productive while I'm waiting for the timer to go off.
Our town recycles all papers and cardboard boxes, including junk mail, so we just toss it in the bin.
This is such a sore spot for me as my husband gets 10x as much mail as I do (he prefers to get all of the bills in his name mailed to us vs. sent by email) & he loves opening the mail... and then leaving it around. He especially loves collecting junk mail (like credit card offers) and insists on keeping them 'just in case.' We have 2 or 3 paper piles in the kitchen of just his mail. I take all the important work and school and bill-related papers and put them in a container on top of the spice cabinet & then file them/throw them away every few months. I go through his stacks every so often and throw away the things on the bottom (the oldest) while still leaving a few things in the pile so he doesn't notice/still feels 'safe.' When we moved two years ago, I found, among other things, blueprints for a house my husband owned 10+ years prior, several of his ex-wife's paychecks from a job she had 6+ years prior, checkbooks for every bank account he's had since college, & paperwork to sign up for the BMG music club circa 1999 so the man LOVES TO COLLECT ALL THE PAPERS. I threw them all out, BTW, since he was in a different state & had no idea what he actually had saved & what he hadn't. I'm cutthroat about paperwork so we have one large cardboard container of important papers (including school things for my daughter) in the basement. This includes ten years' worth of paperwork so I'm pretty happy with that. Eventually I will move her things into her own container, buy a container for my son, and then we'll have our one container for the other important paperwork & that will be it! If it doesn't fit in our one normal-size container, it's out.
Since I have to walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail, junk mail never gets into the house. It goes into the recycle bin before I ever walk into the house. And, now that I have remodeled the kitchen, the part of the kitchen counter where I would dump the mail is gone so I take it directly to the office. I have a place right next to the computer where I put bills and things to be dealt with. Once they are dealt with, they get filed. I also don't have to deal with other people in the home so it is all on me. The only junk mail I get these days is the flyers from local businesses advertising their sales, and the twice-weekly Spectrum/Time Warner offers. I chose to opt out of catalogs and credit card offers a long time ago. Although the catalogs do start up again if you order from someone! There are weeks when I don't get anything in the mail for 3 or 4 days
@HavaDrPepper How did you opt out of catalogs and credit card offers? I'd love to have less of that stuff coming in the mail.
I feel like every piece of mail that we get these days is junk. I don't even bother to check it but a couple of times a week. I'm pretty good about tearing it up and throwing it away as it comes in the door, but DH not so much. I have a place on my kitchen counter that I stick things that need to be held on to or dealt with, like some of the mail my kids get that still comes here. Every so often I go through it and get rid of some of it. But, I do have a big bag of stuff in the corner of my laundry room that needs to be shredded...it's just finding the time and will to do it!
I so wish there was a way to opt out of getting all of the junk mail that is sent! As soon as I get back from the mailbox I throw away the junk and put the stuff that needs to be shred into a box in our closet (there are shred-a-thons here a couple times a year, so we take it down to be shred for free). I do have a pile for bills though.
I start by being selective about what makes it in. Usually, I get the mail. Since it's a short walk to the mailbox, on the way back I sort through it. I stop in front of the recycling bin and toss in all junk mail I don't want, and the envelopes and random inserts from the mail I do want. Usually, this means only a bill or the grocery ads come in the house. The grocery ads I look through while I'm making dinner. I add to my grocery list what is a good deal from each place, then I'll toss the ads. Any bills (usually medical since everything else is online) go by the computer because I'll pay it online. Any events get marked in my planner, and out to the recycle bin. If there's a reason I physically need the paper, it goes into the magnet clip on my fridge. And that's filed by date with the most recent thing on top. After the date passes, it's gone. Artwork: We hung up what looks like a clothesline. When the art comes in, I take a photo of it, and usually a photo of munchkin holding it. Then it goes on the line. The oldest thing comes off, and goes in the recycle bin. He's cool with that process, and so am I. The line is long enough, usually stuff is up there for between 2-3 months. Very few things do I need a physical copy of longterm. And those have a home in our file cabinet. There's a manila envelope for tax receipts for the year. And old taxes until I can destroy them. I have an old scrapbook organizer that II have in the kitchen to keep menus or dining out coupons in. It's pretty, and because it's on the counter, I'm aware of how much is in it. Start here: http://www.directmail.com/mail_preference/ Then check here: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email There are a few ways to get off most mailing lists, unfortunately, it's not as easy as the Do Not Call list - it takes more work.
it's a losing battle here until i do like you Kayla and make it a priority to tackle and then it takes a back seat for a while and piles up again - there are so many notes that come thru or things that need following up and my desk is where they end up when i clear them off the kitchen bench where everyone else dumps them - so i offer empathy!
I save cards etc.. I need to go through and throw out more stuff. Hubby wants me to weed extensively so I know it is coming. I hate to part with certain things and that is my problem, but I don't want it to be somebody else's later. His rule is if you haven't used it in 2-5 years chuck it. LOL so it will be happening!!
Oh geez. Don't get me started on the piles of papers. school papers, bills (rare these days), junk mail, forms I'm supposed to fill out etc. They pile up, I clean them up, then repeat. sigh.
