How This Simple Mail Organizer Has Changed My Life!

3 Easy Steps to Organize Mail With A Pretty Mail Organizer

You might be reading the title of the post and thinking, “How the heck can one simple wall mounted mail organizer (Amazon Link) can change someone’s life?” Right? Well, Let’s talk about our mail, bills and how to organize them. 

In today’s world, everyone seems to go paperless for their mails and bills. However, there are pros and cons to everything. I am a bit old-school, although I am transitioning to go paperless with a lot of my bills I still like to keep some of the original copies as well. 

I don’t like to go paperless with the mortgage and medical bills for the following reasons:

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Reason No. One

If you refinance your home and transfer your loan from one place to another, you lose all your access to the previous and old accounts. 

Reason No. Two

I don’t like to save everything online with the chance of it being compromised. I have gone through a rough experience by losing my information and getting into a mess so I rather keep my records organized and safe.

Reason No. Three

Sometimes it’s nice to have a physical bill to use for any kind of dispute. I quite often find discripancies in medical bills.

Mail is something that piles up very fast. Every household gets tons of annoying junk mail with your regular mail as well. 

Do You Know that The Postal Service processes and delivers 472.1 million mail pieces each day?

Ever since we moved to this new home, I couldn’t find a chance to organize our bills and paperwork. They were just piling up collecting dust in the laundry room over the dryer as we have not set up our home office.

Another day I happened to come across a beautiful mail organizer (Amazon link) while shopping at Hobby Lobby. I got super excited and quickly purchased it. 

This little mail organizer (Amazon link) forced me to organize my piles of mail and bills within minutes. 

It has cut down the clutter and has made a huge difference in my life. It’s hard to believe that one simple mail organizer (Amazon link) can make a huge difference, but oh yes, it did though! 

Once you create a routine and stick to a system, you can easily win a war with clutter.

The wall-mounted file holder has the 3 pockets to place files, so here is how I divided my mail. I placed 2 files in each box and labeled them as below:

• Medical Bills
• Monthly Bills 
• To-Do List
• Coupons
• Receipts

You should always keep monthly bills, including medical bills, as it gives you a clear idea of what to pay and when to pay your bills. In the second folder, I placed all the documents, besides the bills, medical appointments with doctors, or any other documents that need to be taken care of. In the last folder, I placed all my coupons and receipts together, which makes sense.

Here is how I used a useless corner of the house and turned it into our mail station:

Here you have the before and after side by side!

Now, since you have your small organizing station set up, here are the easy three steps I use to stay free from paper clutter!

Step One – Unsubscribe To Junk Mail

When I moved to the USA, my husband was getting an obnoxious amount of mail. Well, no, it was not all the junk mail. There were also letters from debt collectors. Yeah, that’s a story for another day. On top of all those letters, he had way too many subscriptions. One of the first things I did when I started to manage things was to unsubscribe from all the unnecessary mail. Get your name off those lists! There also are paid services you can use to stop your junk mail.

Here is one service you can use for a small fee. By doing this you will instantly cut your mail clutter in half. Yes, you are welcome!

Step Two – Spare five Minutes Daily

Set up 5 to 10 minutes of your time daily to go over your mail, sort it through it, and place them with correct labels. Recycle the ones with no sensitive information such as adds, etc. Shred the ones with sensitive information. Pay your bills according to the due dates and keep an eye on your to-do list. It will be hard for a few days or maybe a couple of weeks. However, after that, you wouldn’t see piles of paper everywhere. Ever since I have been doing this, I don’t see any clutter and I am paying bills on time as well.

Step Three- File Them Properly

The filing is where things get messier and people start to slack. If you get the hang of this little habit, I promise you would never have to deal with junk mail or mail clutter ever again in your life.

File all your important bills and documents at the end of each month to keep yourself sane.

I have been filing bills as soon as I pay them so my little pretty mail organizer will not overflow. You can totally file them all at once.

How long should I keep bills?

I would keep utility bills for 12 months. For the last 10 years, I have shredded my old bills in February. The rule is that keep your utility bills for one year, but I like to give 2 more months in case you need them for any dispute.

Always write your confirmation number and date you pay the bill on your bill. You will thank yourself later!

What is the best way to keep track of the receipts?

In my opinion, the best way to keep track of your receipts is by scanning them immediately with your phone and saving them to a location like Google Drive. Google Drive is totally free and that’s what I have been using. Here is a good article explaining all about it.

I also keep a physical copy of it in my regular folder for a while so in case if I need to return anything or so.

The Magical Mail Organizer!

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What system do you use to organize your mail? I bet you can relate to me. Now, here is the homework for you… Order this organizer and follow the above mentioned 3 steps for 30 days straight. I guarantee that you would feel so much relaxed at the end of the month!

I also invite you to join my mini-course for organizing!

Happy Organizng Friends and let’s help each other to stay organized by sharing this!