Keepin’ it real

So I had a question about how I handle my mail. Real Me asked:

Can I ask you what do you do when your mail comes in? I have a station
in the kitchen where I put them but my desk and stuff is downstairs in my bedroom. I feel like I have too many stations to maintain. Do you have a tip?

First of all I have to admit that I am terrible when it come to piles, I pile everything everywhere. After reading Fly Lady’s site I have bee trying to keep my piles picked up. Honestly it is working (there are some piles, rather large ones that I am ignoring for the time being) my living room and kitchen seem to stay cleaner longer. In the past I would always skip my piles, I figured I didn’t have time to take care of my piles unless I had a big chunk of time. What I have learned is that it really only takes 5 minutes or less to clear off my “hot spots” (Fly Lady) and I would have a clean room.

Now for the mail issue. It use to get piled on my desk, or the counter, or any other flat surface. Then in January I did a big cleaning of my bedroom (this is my biggest pile zone) and I think I had three months of mail on my desk….sigh…not very efficient. I set up my desk as I have it now with little baskets to organise things, specifically bills, my envelope system (thanks Dave Ramsey) stationary. Just because I have the tools of organisation doesn’t mean I am going to be an organised person. Being the person I am there is always going to be some level of ciaos around me, but I came to realise that my behavior needed to change too if I wanted an organised home

So, for mail, this is what happens on a typical good day: The mail is brought in and placed on the table by the door, I will sort it, all adds, catalogues and credit card applications go into the recycle bin (shred the credit card apps.) I do have to say that most of the time I don’t do this durring the day and Dadzoo will quickly sort through it when he gets home. Anything Dadzoo needs to see; medical statements, bill statements or maybe a catalogue that I know he will like stays on the table, he looks through them when he gets home then takes it downstairs to file it away. Bills that need to be paid get put in a certain place on my desk to be paid when Dadzoo gets his check.

We really only get two bills in the mail, the rest are paid on-line, so we only get statements in the mail for those. I don’t feel like I can throw those statements away (for instance our morgage payment) so Dadzoo just files them, they require little attention.

There you go, what I do with mail, very simple, very easy, it really is just a matter of making yourself take care of it as soon as it comes in the door.

And for the Keepin’ it real part, here is a picture of my management center as of 8:00 this morning!