When I pick up my kids from school, they hand me papers and artwork. Most times, the teacher just gave them the papers at the end of the day, and so they clinched the papers as they ran out the school doors.
Other times, they shove it in their book bags and run out of the school, trying to show me their art creations while also saying, “Mom, my teacher told me to give this to you.”
Shortly after, the artwork creations explode onto the tops of my counters as they open their book bags onto the counter to go through our after-school routine.
As a busy family trying to keep up with the constant influx of mail, the chaos on our counter can feel overwhelming.
Bills mixed with junk mail, important documents get lost amidst the clutter, and piles begin to form.
If you have ever told yourself we desperately need a system to tame the chaos and bring order to the countertop mayhem.
Then, welcome to the breakdown of my simple method of organizing mail on your counter.
With a clear organization strategy, I regained control over the daily mail clutter, ensuring nothing important slipped through the cracks.
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How to organize incoming mail as a family
As I mentioned above, getting the mail once you walk into the door is the best daily routine.
If you hang around long enough on my blog, you will learn that systems and routines are what I am passionate about and how I have found success with home management.
Now, the trick is to look at your habits once you get that mail.
Do you naturally put it down on the counter, or does it sit on the dining room table or a mudroom area?
It’s important to know where you naturally put it because you want to use your natural tendencies to create your incoming mail bin successfully.
The goal here, though, is to pick a spot to place your bin system.
Select the perfect mail bin
Now, if a basic bin works for you, GREAT, but for me, as the household’s designated mail and paper organizer. I have/use a hanging file folder bin system because a basic bin added to the chaos instead of eliminating it.
Maybe this is your current system. And you might be shaking your head thinking the same. You ignore the bin until it overflows; it feels too much to handle. Here is the reason why you feel this way.
A singular bin with no actual system means that the piles of paper just became piles of paper inside a bin. And how quickly could that turn into the paper box of doom?
Am I right?
Below are some bin options you might like, and of course, I will share the bin and things I use here. To see the system in action, be sure to watch my YouTube video listed below to see an inside look into my system.
Create your folder in-bin system
So, a regular bin didn’t work for me. I found I would pile papers on top and lose track of bills, and it was just too chaotic.
Using hanging files and file folders worked, and it worked best by creating categories. You want to list all the incoming papers your family gets to help determine your categories, which will be different for each household.
You can choose how you set your categories up, but here is an example of how I have mine.
- Daily Mail
- Receipts /Returns
- Homework/School forms
- Calendars/ reference docs
- Coupons
- Art Work to file
- Tax
I treat this in-bin system as a short-term (ACTIVE) bin, keep reading to understand more of what I mean.
Get rid of the paper clutter first
So now that we have a bin and our landing zone.
Step one is getting rid of the junk mail. You can do this in a few ways.
- Create a recycle bin next to your garbage
- Have a shredder with a recycle bin by it
- Dumb the recycle inside the garage recycle bin on the way in
Your goal is to quickly sort through the mail before you place it inside the bin and eliminate all things clutter, junk mail, credit card offers, etc
Processing your mail
Now, I mentioned that this bin is an active bin. With busy days, after-school activities, and maybe coming home from work late, processing mail sometimes on the same day won’t happen unless it is urgent.
Now, we need to pick a day or time when we will routinely take actual action on the mail. The folders are just holding points in an organized manner.
I chose one day a week where I take the daily mail folder and process it. You can do this however you want, but an example is on Monday each week, I open the bills, send payments, or set up payments. I file documents and take any other action needed.
Daily, though, I check the kid’s school work hanging file folder and return to the school folder to make sure I return signed forms for the next day and that we are doing any school work that needs to be done.
I found a weekly processing date works best, especially because I only pay bills twice a month and use a secondary active filing system inside my office. This is for items that I already sorted through, am waiting for a response, need to pay maybe later, or anything like that.
Optional out bin
Between Amazon returns and things that need to be mailed or sent out, an out bin can be really helpful
If your space allows, this can be a great tool to keep things from getting lost and from creating additional clutter inside the home.
The out bin doesn’t have to be fancy; it can be a simple bin where you can toss your to-do items.
Ideally, if you can place it next to your inbox, that will streamline the process. I personally just place things next to the bin or toss them in the car. Things are more likely to get done quickly if they sit in my car.
It is just a fact of life, mom’s brain and a busy life with kids.
Are you gonna give this mail system a try? Got questions about the mail system. Comment below.
Please share the post if you found it helpful.