Clutter and organization. They are the two forces battling for our attention, our space and our time. Each wanted to be in control. Each fights the other. By stopping clutter before it even gets in the door, we can help organization win the epic struggle. The biggest player on the clutter team? Paper: junk mail, newspapers, fliers. Save a tree and check out these tips to ensure that organization wins. Every time.
1. Junk mail fills our mailboxes daily. Some estimates say over 15 pounds worth a month. That’s just crazy. If you are in a rush and just dump the mail in a pile on the table in the front hall or your kitchen counter, it can overtake you in a matter of days. Fight back. Take your mailbox back. Most fliers have contact phone numbers for people interested in advertising. Call them and request to be taken off the list. Leave a note for your mail carrier and ask then not to deliver the grocery fliers on your day.
2. Pay online. Set aside an evening to switch your accounts to online bill pay. You not only eliminate the paper bills coming in but also the need to send some of your own out. Plus, you save on that stamp each and every month.
3. Call your bank and any investment companies you use and request that they switch to paperless billing. It’s simple, really. They will just send you an email each month instead and you can access it online, at your leisure.
4. Cancel your newspaper service. This includes taking the time to call those freebie newspapers that end up under your bushes. If you don’t read them, cancel them.
5. While you’re outside, digging newspapers out of your begonias, tape a sign to your front door. Nothing too obnoxious, just a small, typed note that requests no fliers be left. Maybe “No Soliciting”. It really is nice not to have to grab all those pizza fliers off the front door and to no longer be interrupted by a nervous teen selling who-knows-what during the big game on Saturday.
6. Catalogs. Personally, I love them. Unfortunately, they add to the clutter in my mailbox, then they pile up on the kitchen counter until I move them to my office, where they sit, collecting dust. Forever. You can do one of two things. Contact catalogchoice.org and ask them to make it stop. One quick sign up and *poof*. No more junk. Or, if you cannot live without your catalog (who me?), try to take a nice 20 minute break and rip out all the pages that interest you. Set them in a folder, nice, neat and out of the way. Wait a week. Pull the folder out and look again. If you still love it, put it in a plastic sleeve and into a 3 ring binder to save for inspiration. If not, toss it. A few pages torn out is better than a bunch of glossy catalogs sliding around on your desk.
7. Magazines, while not technically junk mail, can definitely add to the clutter. You can invest in those storage sleeves from retailers like The Container Store, try the 3 ring binder technique above or you can cancel altogether. Did you know magazines can be delivered digitally? It’s a great excuse to buy that Kindle you’ve been eyeing, right?!
