Mail Center

Mail seems to be a struggle that most households face. The root of many peoples organization problems lies in their mail, whether they realize that or not. It comes in everyday and piles up. It might pile up in the car, on the kitchen counter, or on a desk in your home office. Where ever your piles form, they don't belong, and cause clutter and stress.

Unfortunately a lot of the mail that comes in daily is junk and needs to be thrown away, and important documents get lost in the confusion. Many times these important documents get shoved in a drawer when cleaning the house, or get lost from being spread all over the house and car in different piles.

This is where a mail center comes in handy, and I will explain my mail "process" to you. Let me start by saying do not check your mail when you are leaving home! When you check it on the way out your daily pile ends up in your car. This causes clutter in your car and can be forgotten which results in forgotten bills, unseen invitations, and missing out on great coupons!! Always check your mail when you are going inside, and sort it on your way in. Don't leave it on the kitchen counter to deal with later, sort it now. My mail center is right beside my garage door that leads inside, so I can sort my mail on my way in. It never even makes it into the house!

Your mail center can consist of whatever you see necessary, and what ever supplies you already have. I happened to have an extra dry erase board and file holders, so that is what I used. Get creative and try to use things you already have!

I used command strips to attach my three file bins to my marker board. This is very convenient because I can write notes on the board and also use magnets to attach papers.

Every batch of mail that comes to my house falls into 1 of 4 categories:

Garbage - I keep a trash can below the mail center to go ahead and throw away junk
Read Later - Magazines, catalogs, etc.
Actionable Items - Bills, invitations, things that need to be filed, etc
Discounts - Coupons, deals, flyers, etc.

I printed labels to mark each bin...

About once a week I go through the mail center and take care of all the "Actionable Items" and weed out all the "discounts" and "read later" items. The discounts bin is the bottom one, closest to me, so that on my way to the car to go shopping I can check for coupons and deals.

A mail center should be made to help you, so personalize it depending on your life and your needs!