Hi everyone, I'm Alejandra from Alejandra.TV.
And in this video I'm going to share with you how to organize your mail so you can eliminate
the tall stacks that may be ending up on your desk or your dining room table.
And instead be able to know what you have, take action and stay on top of all of your
important documents.
But first, if you have paper all around your house that needs to be gone through, needs
to be decluttered in order to make space to set up organizing systems, and you are struggling
to get started, you feel overwhelmed, you're procrastinating.
There is a link below to give you support, give you accountability, for beginning of
your project.
Okay, so step one is to check your mailbox frequently.
It can be easy to put off checking the mail when all you receive are bills in the mail,
junk mail, and coupons that you're never going to use.
But if you flip the script and you go to your mailbox with the attitude of, "What am I going
to receive today?
What kind of exciting news or what can I be enthusiastic about?"
Maybe there's a cheque that you're waiting for.
Maybe there's a greeting card from a loved one, or maybe there's a coupon to your favorite
restaurant.
Either way, be excited to check your mail as if something fun is waiting for you.
Try and do it every day.
Don't try, do it every day.
Or every other day, so by the end of the week, the mailbox isn't filled and it feels overwhelming
to go through a tall stack of mail.
So check it frequently and it's going to be a lot easier to stay on top of it.
Okay, so step two is to sort the mail immediately or soon after.
So when you walk in the door from checking the mail, if you can sort the mail right away,
that is ideal.
However, you may want to say hi to your spouse, your children, the dog may be excited to see
you or dinner is ready.
So if you're not going to do it immediately after, do your best to do it before you go
to bed or before the day ends.
So I have my stack of mail right here.
I have these three trash cans, they're in my office.
You can do this in the kitchen or wherever you have space, wherever you process your
mail.
One is recycle, one is trash and one is shred.
So I had my stack here.
All I'm going to do is go through this stuff.
So receipt, trash, those cannot be recycled.
This is shred, this with the envelope as well.
Credit card offer shred with the envelope.
A coupon I'm never going to use, recycle.
Recycle catalog.
Coupon, I'm never going to use, recycle.
And if you want to set aside things to unsubscribe from, so any catalogs or magazines or something,
put that aside with your action items to do later when you take action.
All right, this I may read.
This, recycle.
This I will read later.
File.
This looks like a bill.
These are important.
This is important.
And this looks like a greeting card.
Okay, so I've sorted all of the mail.
Now, I just take all of my action items and I'm going to place them in my mail center
or wherever you process your mail or pay your bills.
But for now, just focus on sorting out, weeding out the things you don't need.
You don't have to take action right away.
You just have to eliminate the unnecessary.
Okay, so step three is to sort all of your actionable papers into your mail center.
So this is my mail center.
I keep it on my desk in my office.
You may have it in the kitchen.
Just make sure you have some kind of basic simple mail center, a place to put all the
things that require action from the mail.
So let me go through my categories.
The first category is, timely action.
So timely action is anything that requires you to take action by a certain date in order
to avoid some kind of consequence, like a late fee or something.
So for example, it's an electricity bill or any other kind of bill that has a due date.
So what I do is I open the bill when I get it.
I put the due date on the outside because I don't take action right away.
I have certain times I take action on these documents.
So write the due date on the outside.
Second category is, action.
So it's anything that requires action.
Anything that requires action, but there's no due date.
So this could be like some kind of form or a questionnaire, survey that you need to fill
out.
Or maybe you are doing some kind of renovation in your house and you have multiple quotes
from contractors.
And you just need to decide there's no real due date, but it just requires some kind of
decision to be made.
Maybe you put that in action.
Processing is anything that does not require your action right now, but instead you're
waiting on something.
So you're waiting on a certain date to come.
You're waiting on a certain person to take action.
So for example, this could be like a travel document, or tickets to a concert or something.
There's no action, but you just need to bring this when the date comes.
So it's kind of like a holding tank for papers that you're going to need very soon.
And then coupons.
So any coupons, just go in this section right here.
This is my coupon binder.
There's a video from years ago on how to set up this system.
Nothing has changed.
This section right here has receipts, so I'm not really getting receipts in the mail, but
when you clean out your purse, come to your mail center.
So I have receipts for business and then I have personal receipts as well.
So I just put them in these little poly envelopes.
The personal receipts I go through on a quarterly basis and I clean it out.
The business receipts I keep for the entire year.
Once the year's over, this goes in the filing cabinet with my tax return for that year.
And then for any one-off occasions, so there's a lot of receipts.
Like for the holidays or something, you can consider taking a scrap envelope or just a
regular envelope writing down what it is.
So Christmas receipts, 2019.
Or maybe this could be a certain birthday party or an event you're hosting and isolate
those receipts so you know where to go when you need them, if you need them.
Oh, and then one thing is, so you don't have to put like petty receipts in your personal
receipt holder.
So any kind of gas receipt or grocery receipt where you know you're not going to return
something, immediately get rid of those receipts.
And only save the things that have some kind of purchase that you may return.
And the last section is bill paying.
So this is where I have my cheque books and then I also have stamps and then cheques to
deposit.
And they stay in poly envelopes just like that in here.
That is the mail center.
Step four, last step is to get into the habit of checking your mail center.
So in other words, get into the habit of taking action.
Going through your different categories.
Seeing what needs to be action.
Seeing what you can get rid of.
Seeing what needs to be followed up on.
And the best way to do that is you could just take a couple minutes, like every other day
or once a week.
A great time is Sunday night or Monday night in the beginning of the week.
Take a couple minutes, scan your mail center.
See if anything requires action.
So what I do is every Monday, I pay bills every other Monday.
So I will check this every other Monday.
But I'm always sitting right here because it's right at my computer.
So I'm always having my eye on, is there anything I need to action before a certain due date?
So again, if you have stacks of paperwork, piles of paper.
Documents are accumulating on your horizontal surfaces, and you're having a hard time getting
started with going through the stuff, making decisions, letting go, getting organized.
There's a link below to offer you support if you need a holding hand and if you can
benefit from accountability.
So that is the mail center.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
Thank you for being here and I look forward to seeing you in an upcoming video.
Take care.
Bye bye.