I gather the mail, and sort it almost immediately if I'm not busy with something else.

DH's gets his mail on the table next to his chair. I put important stuff on a wooden tray on the coffee table (it's large) so I'll know to get to it immediately. I put new magazines next to the tray..which I have a table runner under it.

I put junk mail on the bench in the foyer which will go in the trash the next morning when I empty it.

I sort the mail right away from the mail box so I pitch out all the junk then take the rest to a roll top desk in our bedroom.

We have a P.O. box and hubby picks up mail each afternoon. Because of the po box, we get very little junk mail. What we do get is put into the recycle bin. Magazines go our reading stacks. What we need to pay, file, or whatever goes to our office. This method works for us, no clutter build up.

tina

In the trash because 90% is thrash!

DH does most bill paying online now. For those that come to the house, DH takes to work (except for the VISA bill in which I hide for a few days.) I get the mail, sort it, and leave the rest on our kitchen island. DH takes what he needs, and the rest is sent to the trash.

If I am home first I bring it in, sort and throw the important stuff into a tall market basket in the living room.The basket is tall so you have to walk over to it to see what is in it so it just looks like a display basket. trash the rest.

All the mail gets put on a desk which isn't really used for anything much. It's actually a secretary which happens to be in a small alcove in my family room. The mail piles up there all week. I do a cursory glance through it every 1-3 days just to make sure there's nothing urgent. On Sundays, I go through the entire pile.

It always amazes me that about 90 - 95% of the stack ends up in my recycle bin. The rest is bills, a couple of magazines that I subscribe to, and other misc. stuff like insurance statements and the like.

This system works for me because going through the mail daily is just too much of a chore when I get home from work and have to cook dinner and get other stuff done and also squeeze in some relaxation time. Sundays are generally a do-nothing day and I can go through all the mail at a leisurely pace while sitting in front of the TV or listening to music.

Thank you for asking this question!!! Mail is a constant problem at our house. I was seriously thinking of attaching a hanging file to the wall by the front and garage doors (they are right next to each other). Not pretty but would certainly solve the problem.

The two things I regularly do, which has helped, is to cull out the junk and recycle it (or give it to DS to play with) right away. Then I take any coupons or ads I want to keep and put them in a magazine holder on our kitchen counter. They're not pretty but at least they're contained and in a spot where I can find them :-)

I'm in the same boat as you: where to consistently put the rest of the mail...

It's hopeless for those of us who are "bad about not putting things away."

One of us gets the mail and we trash the trash immediately. Then his mail or bills go on the kitchen desk (this is a real desk not a counter, but it's old - in a good way - and small and doesn't hold much). My mail usually gets put on the top of my handbag (which is on the kitchen table), and sooner than later ends up on the table top where it's been known to stay a very long time ;-(

I'm trying to reform, but... right now there only about 4 things on there, that's pretty good for me, LOL!

My DH picks up the mail from our PO box every other day, plops it on the counter, after hugs hello, I sort it and don't let it sit. Magazines are swapped out on the coffee table, old ones go on the bookshelf, bills are opened, and ready to go in the bill holder by the door,, filing goes to the office and the junk mail gets tossed. I used to go nuts with mail clutter so I feel for ya. It's all about finding a new routine that works with your schedule, making a habit of it and sticking to it.

sort it immediately. DH's mail gets put in his inbox in the office, mine on my desk & DS's in his basket, junk mail on shredder. I shred once a week. If I don't do this, it piles up SO bad. 2 college kids goes on my desk until I ask if I need to forward or can put on their desks here.

I've adopted the "Touch Once" Policy.

I pick it up from where son puts it when he gets the mail. It goes either: Trash, Shredder, or stairs to be taken upstairs and put in basket with bills to be paid.

Ours used to get laid on the kitchen island because it was the first thing to lay anything on when coming in from the garage and I got home before hubby so I got the mail. I got tired of hubby opening things up and leaving all the paper trash on the island instead of stepping back out the garage door where our recyclables are.
I no longer work outside the home so unless I go somewhere hubby gets the mail. He sorts it and giving me mine or putting it on my desk. I do the same if I get it putting it his on his desk.

I'm with beekeeperswife - I use the OHIO method - O for only, H for handle, I for it, & O for once. Only Handle it Once. I pick it up at the post office - sort it as soon as I get home & pick out the bills & things I want to read. Hubby gets his on a pile & the rest is recycled.

Wow. You are all so organized. Lukkiirish is right about finding a routine that works and make it a habit. Definitely something I need to work on. DH could use help in that dept. too. His pile is worse than mine.

At the end of my refrig/pantry run I have a small section of countertop above a bank of drawers (about 21X24) where all the mail and other c**p get piled. Two of the drawers hold mailing and school supplies. The other two drawers are supposed to be for DH and me to store mail and other stuff that needs to be saved short term. Unfortunately DH's drawer remains empty while his pile on top grows ever larger. Heaven forbid he should have to open a drawer to get to something when he wants it.

I have a three tier letter holder where bills, bank statements and that sort of thing are put until they get paid or whatever. From there they go directly to the file box that I keep in one of my kitchen cabinets. I wanted a filing cabinet in the kitchen, but it was one of the things that had to be scrapped due to lack of space.

I wish DH could be a little neater/more organized, but as long as all the clutter stays on the one counter I guess I have to consider it a victory. In our previous kitchen there was so little counter space and his piles were so large, I had a space about 15"X24" to do prep work in.

Totally Confused

We had the same problem as you do: too much mail on the counter. I usually recycle junk before it even enters the house, but there's always a bunch of stuff I don't want to throw away but don't want to deal with at that moment. Stuff like coupons, magazine subscription offers, bills to be paid later (though most are paid automatically). I finally bought a basket to hold all that stuff, and periodically go through it and weed out. I wish I were as good as some of those who have posted, but I'm not. This works for us.
Dee
{{!gwi}}

Same as ruthy1. Sort, recycle the papers that don't have numbers, shred what does, pay the bills, set aside what needs to be addressed, and keep whatever I do want. The bill stubs get put in a file cabinet later on. That goes in a tray on the desk. When my still not ex-husband lived with me, I put his on his bookshelf... which he never opened. I am so glad to see, leaving him his mail to deal with is normal!

;)

Pick up mail from the box, open, sort, trash, shred.

Put "TO BE PAID" bills in a sorter in the kitchen. Magazines are put beside the reading chair. P.S. I always rip out the cardboard ads from the magazines first!

"TO BE FILED" items go in the home office cupboard's filing box. Filing is done every few weeks! The home files are kept in chronological order so that items can be found with minimal delay.

After the bills are paid and mailed (we are going electronic sometime soon!) then the paid bill is marked with the date and the number of the check and goes into the filing box in the home office.

Anything that needs to be examined or discussed waits on the breakfast bar for later discussion with DH. I do not tolerate bills or papers (of any sort or kind)"hanging around" without some kind of resolution. No way!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

This discussion actually makes me appreciate something about my house. We have a true foyer-a separate entry room-and I've got a nice wooden tray on the console table there. Super easy to corral incoming mail and we sort daily. Routine is:

-Toss out junk mail
-Place magazines into a basket I keep in the same room
-Place bills/financial mail into a file in the office which is adjacent
-Leave pending items in the tray stacked neatly
-Done

It really works for us and I'm glad now that we have what I usually criticize as a 'useless' room :).

Ann