Holy cow…is it just me? Or is your mailbox overflowing with holiday magazines, catalogs and coupons, too?
Here’s my simple solution.
Step 1: Really think about which holiday-related mail you need to keep. Which stores do you plan to shop at this year? If you know you don’t need anything from a particular store, recycle the catalog or coupon…right away. Like today. While you’re at it, consider if you need a particular catalog anymore at all. If not, get off some lists!
Step 2: Corral the keepers into a basket. The basket above is my holiday planning central. It includes:
- An envelope for receipts.Receipts for all holiday-related purchases go into the envelope. On the top of the receipt,I jot down the name or names of the gift-recipient, just in case we need to do some exchanging at the end of the season.
- Coupons. I hold onto coupons only for stores I plan to shop at during the holiday season. The others get recycled right away.
- My holiday planning binder. I put this together as part of my Get Organized for the Holidays workshop. It contains all my holiday plans, lists, etc.
- Magazines and catalogsare stashed behind the binder. I keep catalogs I have a high likelihood of purchasing from or those that contain inspiring photos that could be used for decorating ideas or creative projects. The magazines are here for recipe ideas for holiday get-togethers, gift ideas, and general browsing pleasure.
Step 3: Sort your mail daily. By having a spot for the holiday related stuff, it makes the rest of the mail less overwhelming. If mail is your organizing “ouch-spot” during the rest of the year, it will really pay to make the extra effort to sort and make decisions about your mail each and every day during the holidays. Recycle the true junk, put the holiday related items in your holiday central, and corral together those bills to be paid and other action items that come in your mail.
How do you stay on top of mail during the holidays? Any special tips or ideas to share?
I grab my mail on the way to pick up my kids from school. While I wait in the carpool lane I open and sort. Then once I get home I take all of the junk and throw it directly into the recycle bin outside. I take the shred stuff and immediately shred it and then deal with the little that is left.
I do need to work on the catalog list. I get way too many and feel guilty never ordering and always recycling them. I’ll add that to my goals for 2009 right below the goal of trying to go paperless for bill paying. This would be HUGE and I am nervous about it.
I just stuck all the mail labels on my batch of cards to send out. WAHO!
I save my labels in a document named 2008 Christmas labels. I print out the labels and a plain paper copy with it so I can recall who I sent to, and make notes.
I usually have a container in the card basket that I collect all the incoming cards in. I pull the return address label off the envelope, put it into the container, and shred the envelope. Every few days I go over my print out with that return addresses and check off all the cards that I receive and double check the addresses are correct. I add new address to the sheet and send them a card.
After Christmas, I prep the list for next year renaming the file to 2009 deleting address of those people who didn’t send a card to us, and make address corrections and add new names.
I have been discarding all mail fliers (keeping the coupons). I can find it all on line. I make bookmarks online, and have my kids book mark the things on their list. I’ll have to check out that site about getting removed from the mail list.
Wow I had no idea that mail was such a huge issue for people?! Maybe just for Americans? It’s not a big deal to me here in Canada. We get our weekly flyers in our box and when I’m at the post office, I throw out the ones I don’t need right there. And if I’m not getting into the city (where the stores are) that week then I throw them all out at the post office. Sears sends out a few catalogues a year. And then there is bills. And I only subscribe to one magazine. So that’s it for mail. And it doesn’t get any crazy at Christmas times, expect that those weekly flyers seem to be a bit thicker.
Good luck with your organzing of all that paper.
Love your basket idea. I need to implement that in our house especially the recipe envelope. Right now I have a pile of coupons sitting on my desk from stores I may shop at. I need to make a folder for that. I just received my first card yesterday so need to start putting them somewhere. What do you do with all the cards you receive especially the picture cards? Last year I gave all the cards to my kids to cut up and glue. As for the photo cards I put them in a photo album cutting 2 inches off each one so they would fit into a 4 x 6 slot. Just today I was searching for a 4 x 8 photo album but didn’t come up with any. I’d love to have an album where I could just insert the cards as is and be done with it. I so like Patti Mc’s idea about the address labels above. Will have to do something like that as well. As for catalogs I toss them in the trash can after looking at them quickly.
I have a section in my binder that has all the addresses I’m sending out. As cards come in, I double check the address. If it’s the same – I throw it away. If it’s different, I put it in a pocket in the binder. I throw all catalogs away – they are all online now anyways.
drat Aby – you have the BEST ideas!!! and honestly – your cute little receipts envelope – all fancy with a rub-on. . .making me totally jealous of my safety-seal with marker on the front. . .at least i used red!! LOL
thanks for the never-ending supply of inspiration – i look forward to your posts each day (or there abouts)
Hillary
One item you might want to add is a large envelope for tax documents. I know it’s hard to believe but shortly you’ll be getting items that need to be kept for your tax return preparation (1099s, W2s, etc.) Just set up a large envleope and still all your tax items into it as they arrive. Then when it’s time to prepare your return, it’s all in one place.