Mail as clutter

One thing I constantly find myself trying to work on is de-cluttering the house. If I didn't know better, I'd think papers, toys, and other items are multiplying in my house. We'll get the house all straightened up, and the next thing you know, there are papers and toys on every flat surface within sight!

Today is the day you and I tackle our snail-mail clutter together by making and implementing a plan to keep it at bay!

In our house, one major cause of clutter is mail. It arrives daily - bills, magazines, local papers, product samples, and that beloved junk-mail. As soon as we bring it into the house, it gets dropped on the island in the kitchen for us to deal with later. As you can probably guess, "later" around here usually translates into, "in a few days when we have a large pile". I do tend to pull out the bills and place those on our office desk, but then that equals clutter in the office. Yep, yet another place where we're constantly fighting clutter! Do you have the same problem?

One idea I have heard is to only touch papers once. If you don't have children at home, this method may work great for you! The idea is you deal with each piece of mail immediately so you won't have to pick it up again later - discard junk mail, put away samples, pay bills, and deal with any other mail as soon as it comes in the door. This is tough for me. With three children needing my attention, it's nearly impossible for me to do.

My plan instead is to sift through the mail as soon as I bring it in. It should only take a minute or two to immediately throw away any junk mail, remove samples from their packaging and throw away the packaging. From there, I plan to put the magazines and newspapers I want to look at on the end table in the living room. The samples will be set next to the steps to be taken upstairs when I go up next. Also, bills will continue to be taken to the office desk so that they can be paid once I get a free moment. Nope, these aren't really ideal locations for the samples, magazines, and bills, but we're working on baby steps, right? Those other areas will be dealt with soon enough.

What are your ideas for dealing with snail mail clutter? Do you have a system that works well in your house?