Top Ten Tips - Organizing Your Postal Mail
By Tip Diva | Apr 30, 2008
Categories: Banking, Charity, Cleaning, Creativity, Difficulty, Files, Home, Household, Junk Mail, Mail, Papers, Safety, Tips, Websites
If your mailbox is anything like Tip Diva’s, it’s brimming with everything from bills and statements to newspapers and religious pamphlets. Sometimes you just ignore the mail and let it pile up, but there are easy ways to control your physical inbox and keep things organized:
- Get A Box For Each Person’s Mail - If you have multiple people in your household, get a shoebox or tray for each person’s mail. This will help mail from getting lost.
- Sort Your Mail Immediately - When the mail arrives, sort it right away - don’t leave it to pile up. Open what needs to be open and toss what needs to be tossed.
- Create An “Urgency” File - Create a special box or file for bills or other mail that needs your urgent attention. Don’t leave these milling about catalogs or other unimportant items.
- Stop Junk Mail - If you get a lot of junk mail, you can put an end to it by following some of these great tips from Obviously.com.
- Stop Catalogs - Most catalogs - which you usually receive after purchasing from the store in the past - have numbers in or on the back of the catalog to stop mailings.
- Stop Charity Mailings - Many charities send out periodical free gifts and donation requests. Call the charity and ask them to be taken off your mailing list, and that you will donate online or by telephone.
- Switch To Paperless Statements - Many banks and credit card companies offer you the option to receive your statements via e-mail rather than postal mail.
- Don’t Throw Away Unmarked Envelopes - If you get an unmarked envelope, don’t automatically think it’s junk mail and throw it away. Many companies - like credit card companies and concert ticket companies - send information or goods in unmarked envelopes to protect your identity or potentially expensive items.
- Shred Personal Information - Don’t just toss away statements, credit card offers or any other piece of mail that has personally identifiable information on it. Invest in a shredder and shred the documents, or toss them in a fireplace and watch them burn.
- Get A P.O. Box - If you have a lot of people in your house or would like to separate very important mail from other mail, then invest in a P.O. box, which can be purchased from the U.S. Postal Service either bi-annually or yearly.
Other Tips To Check Out:
Instead of having to deal with sorting and shredding all that stuff that comes in I stopped it. I have a membership with Myjunktree and stopped all teh junk mail from coming to my home. They helped me stop all the Credit Card offers and I was able to select and stop the catalogs I no longer wanted. I was even able to stop the phone books that went straight to teh recycling bin. I save so much time every week not dealing with this junk. Do yourself a favor and check them out.
Thanks, Tim - will check it out!