living consciously: What To Do after you Scaled Down the Unwanted Mail (March Post: Unwanted Mail 101)

Hopefully, you had a chance to scale down the junk mail and are seeing a lot less enter your home. Since you can't take down the mailbox, there will be mail! there are many great systems on how to deal with mail. Here is one I came up with and wanted to share at the request of a few readers.

The Ground Rules:

1. Complete the steps from the March post: Unwanted Mail 101. Critical.

2. Designate a small space in your house that is devoted to the mail. Have all your tools there.
      a-a phone or access to a phone
      b-stamps
      c-a shredder
      d-recycling basket/bin/trash can
      e-trash can
     f-return labels
      g-note/gift cards
      h-your Fiver (explained below)

3. Remember that retrieving the mail from the mailbox should be a single event. Don't combine it with other   tasks like unloading the groceries. That is the way mail gets thrown on the table/counter. Get the mail only when you have 3-5 minutes to deal with it; otherwise, leave it in the mailbox.

4. Immediately trash or shred unwanted items. (If you have completed the steps in Unwanted Mail 101 and are still getting trash/shredded items 8 weeks out, you may have to call the company individually to get taken off their list)

5. Open bills and discard any items you don't need. For example, I pay my bills online so I immediately discard the envelope, the return envelope and any stuffers in the envelope.

6. Sort the leftovers in to your FIVER. A fiver is a filing system with 5 sections. The first four sections are labeled 1-7,8-15, 16-23, and 24-31. These numbers represent the dates in a month. The last section can be labeled "Others" (Lost reference) or "The Rest" (Gilligan's Island Reference) ... or whatever you want to call mail intended for others in the family. A bill that is due on the 9th should be filed in 1-7, so it is not late. An invitation in which the RSVP is due on the 15th but the event is on the 29th gets first placed in 8-15 so you remember to RSVP and then it is moved to 24-31 after you RSVP so you have all the details you need the week of the event. Anything due next month goes in 24-31 and then gets carried over at the end of the month or if that week has already past for the current month, you can put it in that section of the month!  For things that don't have due dates, try to put a self-imposed due date for yourself, dividing those up among weeks to spread out the tasks.

7. Each week, set aside 15 minutes to deal with the items in that week!

Here are some ideas of FIVERS depending on how your space is set up.