Drowning in mail -

I was drowning in mail.  Some was super important and some wasn’t it, and it just kept coming – like every day!!   Invitations, coupons, bills, statements - blurg!! 

One sick-day home from work, I organized my file cabinet and created gorgeous little color coded files – fabulous!!  But then my mail had to make it from the mailbox somehow to my files – and that was just not happening.  I was stacking it lovingly by the door (I love to stack things) – bleh, with the plan to "file it" I don't know when. 

So then I repurposed this whacky little closet we have (it’s under our stairs so it has a weird shape) into a pseudo organization center!!  It is right by the garage so as soon as I walk in with the mail, I can sort!  Trash goes in trash right away and I have bins for everything else. So I just fling it in the appropriate bin.  I have a shredder in there too if necessary.   ( I love to stack, my husband loves to shred). 

Three shots of my messy, but useful little closet – my mail station that may have saved my marriage.

Once a year I distribute them to the files upstairs (if necessary) and the rest gets disposed of in some way. 

The most important bin is the “needs attention” bin.  That’s where anything that needs me goes – bills especially, but also things like wedding invites (RSVP and buy a gift), forms to fill out, whatever.   My house is not so cluttered with mail, my husband isn’t giving me "stabby eyes" when he asked where something is and I have no idea,  AND I know where my latest Joann Fabric coupon is.  It’s good.