Organization 101 – creating a mail system

I created a mail system and got super organized! I will show you exactly how I did it!

If you’re like me then you probably have a junk drawer. You’re even more like me if you have two or more junk drawers! Then all of a sudden one day your unorganized mail pile becomes just chaos. I majorly needed to learn organization as a life skill in my personal growth journey – so I’m starting this new segment on beginner organization tips. Really they’re for me, but I figured I can share these tips with you.

My mail pile kept getting higher and higher? Can you relate? We had one spot for mail, but that quickly grew to two spots of mail. I’m embarrassed to tell you that we have three different spots of mail in our home and one of the spots might be where we keep our drinking glasses. Now there’s no room for our glasses! Our bills were mixed with important kids papers and their drawings with no end in sight. Our kitchen office nook seems like the perfect location to keep such things, but it was inaccessible due to it being a dumping ground for everything else.  I needed an intervention! I started Pinteresting organizational hacks and here’s what I found.

HACK 1 – CREATE AN IN AN OUT SYSTEM

So what I’m gathering from the most organized people out there is that they have one spot for mail that has just arrived and another for mail going out. Once the mail is opened, it finds a new home either in the trash or filed away somewhere. If it’s something that needs to be mailed back out it goes in the out spot.

Some people have two galvanized envelopes that they hang on their walls for mail coming in and out. I’ve also seen two paper tray organizers on a desk that serves the same purpose. For me, I decided to use what I had so I didn’t have to buy anything new. I had a couple of metal baskets that I decided to hang in our office nook in our kitchen so it was really accessible.

HACK 2 – HAVE A PLAN

I swear, half the battle of staying organized is just having a plan and knowing what to do with all the random papers that are inevitably going to come your way. Things like flyers, junk mail, bills, coupons, kids school papers, medical appts,  etc. So I decided to get a game plan for what I knew was going to come my way and where I was going to put it when it did.

I got a folder for important school papers, and I started filing away paid bills, I tossed flyers, I put coupons in a plastic baggie and tucked them in a drawer. This part came pretty easy to me. There’s certainly a systematic way to be organized that made sense for me, the problem was-  am I going to stick to it?

Hack 3 – set a goal

I knew the only way for me to actually stick to this new way of organizing my mail was to set a goal and stick to it. I’m a pretty competitive person, even with myself oddly enough. So I knew if I told myself I had to do it for 30 days – I’d do it. Rachel Hollis (one of my favorite authors by the way) says you can do anything if you tell yourself to do it for 30 days. If I cheat or get lazy I’d have to start my clock over. This way it becomes a habit.

Organization is a life skill that I am just no good at! It wasn’t something I was taught as a child and it has carried into my adulthood. At some point, you have to own your mistakes and not blame the way you were raised on your behaviors today. I want a more organized stress-free life! It’s time I strap on my big girl boots and work hard at changing my behaviors. My first stop is creating a more organized mail solution. Next, the possibilities are endless for practicing the art of organization in my home!

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