Coping with Paper Clutter

Because my "office" is a corner of my kitchen, I'm always frustrated by the paper clutter littering my countertops--flyers, Bee's artwork, bills, receipts. Aaarrgghhh! It drives me crazy!

It used to be much worse, until I did these three things:

1) Set up a mail sorting system
2) Developed a filing system
3) Reduced the amount of paper that comes into the house.

We'll cover all three of these over the next few days, but today, we're going to talk about setting up a mail sorting system:


This is a 20-year-old, heavy duty, metal mail sorter that my husband used when he had his auto repair and sales business. It used to be a dirty gray, with rust spots here and there. To avoid spending money on an overpriced, cheaply made, plastic mail sorter, I cleaned this one well with steel wool, and my husband sprayed it with a can of gloss black spray paint. I then labeled the slots with my trusty, free after rebate, Dymo labelmaker. The slots are labeled as follows:

1) Outgoing mail/bank deposits. This is a holding place for things that I need to take with me on errand day.

2) To safe deposit box. This is a holding place for important documents that are stored at our bank for safekeeping, such as abstracts, birth certificates, savings bonds, etc. I recently had to refer to the abstract for our rental property, and get a copy of Bee's birth certificate for kindergarten round-up, so these two items are now waiting to be returned to the bank.

3) To basement. This is a holding place for papers that need to be filed in our long-term storage cabinet in the basement. These are things that we don't refer to often, like warranties, owner's manuals, tax returns, etc.

4) To be filed. This slot is for receipts, invoices and other papers that need to be filed in my short-term, file storage box.

5) To do. This slot is for things that need my attention. Examples are bank statements to reconcile, invitations to RSVP, and cards or letters that require a reply. If my husband needs me to do something, he writes me a note and puts it here.

This sorter sits on the end of my kitchen counter, closest to my computer, and my Home Management Guide sits next to it. I store checkbooks, stamps, deposit slips, post-its and other office supplies in the drawer just below it, so everything I need is together, and easily accessible.

When I bring in the mail, I immediately weed out the junk, and tear our name and address off of everything. This is very important to prevent identity theft. I throw the junk into our recycling bin in the garage, except for the parts with personal information on them. These go into my "To be shredded" basket:


This little basket sits on top of the cross-cut paper shredder in my pantry. When the basket is full, I shred everything into a brown paper sack and throw the whole works into the recycling bin. It should be noted that I keep the shredder unplugged, because Baby C. gets into everything, and I don't want her to stick her fingers in it!

I file bills by due date in my "Bills" folder, and any papers that require action in the "To do" slot. If there's a catalog that I don't want to receive, I tear off the address section, and write "Letter" on it. I put this in my "To do" slot, so I remember to send the company my "Remove me from your mailing list" form letter (more on all of this to come.)

Sadly, mail and bills are a fact of life that we cannot change, but we can get control of it! We don't have to allow mountains of paperwork to take over our lives, and make us miserable. Because of this sorting system, I can deal with our daily mail in only a few minutes. I hope that this post gives you an idea of how to handle your mail, so you can set up your own system. It will make your life so much easier.