You've Got Mail!

      

I see so much mail piled up when I go into people’s homes and businesses.  There are plenty of reasons that people do not open mail and deal with it as soon as they receive it.  Most of the time it is because they do not WANT to deal with the information contained within those envelopes.  Let’s face it…When you order a new phone or book you don’t leave it sitting on the table for two weeks unopened after it is delivered.  Because those things are fun, and bills are not fun. But looking at growing pile of bills is just going to depress you so I'm going to share some ideas for dealing with mail so it doesn’t get so overwhelming.

See if you can make this a new habit!

1. Do not set the mail down on a table for later.  Walk to the trash/recycling can and pitch the junk (rip it/shred it up if it makes you feel better but this junk mail will probably not contain any sensitive information.)  While you are at it, open any letters and toss the envelopes.  Now walk the rest of the mail to your desk/bill paying area.
2. Now you have a couple of options depending upon your personal filing system.
1.  File the bills into their designated file.
2. For those who do not like to hold onto paper or simply do not have the space to file these things away.  Get out your smart phone!  Quickly snap a picture of the bill and either save it to a designated space on your cloud server or email it to yourself to be filed away digitally.  Since clouds are not 100% reliable, I would be more inclined to file it into a designated folder on your cloud server AND email it to yourself, filing it then into a designated folders in your email account.  That way more than one server has a copy.  If that sounds like too much of a hassle, you should just do what you feel comfortable with.  After you have a copy stored away you can toss the physical bill. 
3. Now that the bills are done, you can read any other correspondence, mark your calendars with any important dates and then recycle that mail as well.  
4. Next time you pay your bills set up ebills only.  This will cut down on the important mail you receive. 
5. The Federal Trade Commission suggests visiting www.optoutprescreen.com to put a stop to unsolicited credit cared and insurance offers.  This can help cut down on the amount of unsolicited mail you receive. 
6.  If you are unable to pay a bill at the time it is received you may end up receiving duplicates.  If this happens keep the original and then most current versions only.  Everything in between can be discarded.  You keep the first bill so that you will notice any discrepancies in the balance owed between the time the debt was incurred and the most recent billing cycle.
7. If this is a debt you are paying a little at a time keep a tally sheet in the file with the bills so you can update it each time you make a payment.  If you store your bills digitally a notepad or spreadsheet can be updated and stored in the folder with the statements. 

This whole process should take you less than 5 minutes. As I mentioned the majority of your mail will likely be unsolicited advertising. You might get a bill or other important correspondence every 3 to 4 days on average. More than anything it is about making the commitment to deal with this right away and every day.

In addition to mail we hold on to many other types of papers as well. Many are important but those should be treated with importance and put away. If you are having trouble making space for your important paperwork, check out my blog for organizing your files.  If you can get all of your paper under control in your home you will really start to notice a difference in how tidy it feels.  Happy filing friends!

Meredith

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A Functional Personal Filing System

A functional filing system is so important! You don't need a fancy desk or cabinet to store these files in.  A cardboard file box you pick up at the store will suffice.  All that really matters when it comes to filing your important paperwork is that your system is functional and consistent throughout.

The first key to constructing a great filing system is color codes. Assign a colored binder or expanding file folder to a major life category. It does not matter what colors they are, you can have a light blue, dark blue, and a periwinkle if you want. All that matters is that you can quickly distinguish one binder from another. Do not worry that you will not be able to memorize what colors go with what.  After you actively use this system it will become second nature.   It also does not matter what top level categories you use, everyone's categories will probably look a little different but I have laid out some broad examples below to provide you with a visual today.

1. Employment
2. Medical
3. Home
4. Transportation
5. Vital Records
6. Pets
7. Financial

Next assign colors to subcategories.  Again, your subcategory needs could look different but here are some more examples.

• Informational
• Invoices
• Receipts 

Once you have assigned colors to any subcategories your personal life warrants.  Then you will want to get expandable file folders in the colors you choose. You will likely want to have these subcategories in each of the top level binders so make sure you get enough folders.

Last but not least, get manila file folders and colored stickers to go within the subcategory folders. Each member of the family gets their own color sticker. Place a manila folder, with the members name and colored sticker in any of the subfolders where they have information specific to them.

 Let’s say our family is made up of Vince, Margaret and their dogs Buster and Spike. Our filing system will look like this.

If you find you have something that applies to all members of the family, place that item in the subcategory folder.  For example, Vince and Margaret's marriage certificate.  You can't assign that to just one of their manila folders so I would file that loosely into the Information Subcategory in the Vital Records binder.

I have found, for me at least, that this is the easiest way to file personal information away and most importantly FIND that information when you need it. Take the following scenario for example.

Zeus bites a neighbor….on your property. When the police and animal control arrive to take a report you look into your file cabinet/box/drawer. You know this incident involves your pet, (Open Brown Binder), You will need vaccination history to give to animal control (Open Blue Sub folder), For Buster, (Open Manilla folder with Pink Sticker) Next it happened at your home, (Open Black Binder) where you have homeowners insurance to provide to the police (Open Blue Sub folder), within a minute you have all of the information you need.

You can see now how simple it is to locate that information quickly verses a more standard method of filing that would likely force you to thumb through a lot more paperwork to find the specific item you need.  For instance you would probably have a vague "Insurance" folder.  That might include car insurance, boat insurance, home insurance, life insurance and who knows what else.  You might still have a "pet" folder where both pets information (Vaccines, boarding receipts, prescriptions etc.) would probably be crammed together and it would have been more time consuming to find Busters specific vaccination information in an emergency.

You will of course want to adapt this multi level filing system to better suite your specific needs, but I wanted to give you some broad examples on how you can start to construct an easy, organized, and FUNCTIONAL filing system on your own.

Meredith

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It's the Sentiment That Counts

In my last post we talked about how to pare down your everyday clutter.  But what about all of those sentimental items that you just can’t seem to bring yourself to let go of.  I know most people will tell you to just get rid of them. They will say things like, “Those are things not people” or remind you that you still have the memory of that time or person that the sentimental item reminds you of.  While those are valid points, it seems incredibly insensitive and unrealistic to expect everyone to just throw away an item when that “thing” can bring them to tears or can make them smile uncontrollably.  People and the memories we create with them are irreplaceable, so when a special period of time has passed or a person has passed it is completely natural to want to cling to something here in the physical realm.  While I am not here to tell you to throw all of your treasures away, but we are going to look at some ways that we can hold onto these items in a way they do not obstruct you in your everyday life. 

The majority of people do not have an overabundance of sentimental items in their house.  But to get us started today, let’s say you do.  Perhaps you have just inherited a loved one’s residence, or you are a new parent who is unsure of when to let go of those onesies that your infant keeps growing out of every month.  While I am all for holding onto sentimental items, it is unlikely that you can or even want to keep all of them.  We only want to keep usable items and emotionally charged items.  

Now the first question is obviously, what can you use and how soon can you use it.  You can refer back to the previous posts justification chart and see if there are any items that you are not painstakingly attached to that you can start parting with. 

At this point you should be left with usable items and maybe a few unusable items that you feel an overwhelming, strong emotional attachment too.  Next step…Find a place in your home for the usable items. 

If you know you will not be using the items for another year or two, but are absolutely confident you will use them, perhaps when you have your next child, store them safely in a place where they will not get mixed up with items you use in the present time.  In other words, get the bottles out of the kitchen and the onesies into a vacuum sealed bags and out of the way.  This is very important because as long as these unusable items are taking up space alongside the items you use every day, they are going to inevitably cause you some form of frustration.

If you already have a duplicate of a usable item but you wish to keep the sentimental version of it, for instance you inherit a dining room table.  Sell your old one.  This goes for smaller items as well.  Let these items serve you in the present time.  You will see them, touch them and care for them every day. That is a wonderful thing!

Now this leaves us with the non-usable sentimental items.  These are often times the most significant but least cared for items.  They are generally left shoved in the back of a closet or drawer, only encountered occasionally, usually when you are looking for something else.  What we are going to do with these items is get them out  of the closet and drawer.  They should be stored separately. Again, we want to remove them from the mix of your everyday items so that your day to day life does not begin to feel encumbered by them. 

Some of these items can be displayed.  Put into shadow boxes or set on shelves.  Other, more fragile items, i.e. books, linens etc. should be protected.  Wrap them in protective coverings and store them in a secure location.  Waterproof, fireproof, bulletproof…the best you got!  These are things you don’t want exposed to the elements.  Set a date on your calendar annually to open this box and examine these items.  Give yourself just an hour or two to relish in the memories and really care for those items.  Get the entire family involved. This is a great time to tell younger generations stories about their family.

There is absolutely a way to live in the present and still cherish your past.  Life might be a one way street, but we still have a rear view mirror that allows us to go back and visit our memories any time we wish.  My job here is to make sure the road ahead is free and clear of debris.  Happy trails my friends!

 Meredith Warren- Designate A Space

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The Process of Purging

The number 1 rule for keeping your environment organized is that everything must have a place.  Hence our company name, Designate A Space.  If you find that you have run out of places to put your things, chances are you have too many things.  The first step is to ask yourself the hard question...."Do I really need this?"

I've worked with many people and most of the time, purging is the hardest part of the process.  People have trouble letting go for many reasons.  Most of the time they hold on to things out of a fear that they will need that item the second they throw it away.  Now for this I have a justification scale that I use to balance the monetary value of an object with your need for said object. I feel like it is very fair and non aggressive but if followed, can keep your life from becoming overwhelmed with things. Sentimental items are not measured using the justification scale, I will give you some suggestions to handle your treasures in another article.

You can see from the chart below that the more expensive the item, the longer of a period you can hold onto it without using it.  Of course if you have an expensive item that you already know you will not be using again, feel free to purge ahead of schedule!  Also if any item currently has a place in your home and you do not frequently use it, you can hold onto it as long as everything else in your home has a place already as well.  If not, well it might be time to get rid of that food dehydrator and just come to terms with that fact that you are simply never going to like kale chips.

Now keep in mind that purging does not necessarily mean throw away.  It just means you are ridding your environment of something unnecessary.  If the condition of something has completely deteriorated and it is not a collectible you should simply throw it away.  If the product still functions but is perhaps outdated or not considered desirable any more you should donate these products.  If a product is still widely used by the population and in good working condition you should sell these items.  You can do this by having a garage/yard sale or by doing so online.   If you aren't sure between what should be donated and sold you can always just try to sell it all and donate whatever is left.  

One easy way to calm your fears about purging a product is to guarantee yourself the ability to repurchase said item if absolutely necessary.  How can I make such a promise to myself, you ask?  Easy!  You are going to set aside any money you make from purging, every time you purge into an account that you do not currently use.  This will be you emergency..."OMG why did I throw that away?" fund.

Now that you have money...lets say you encounter a time you need that thing you purged.  Now is a GREAT time to ask yourself, is this something I can rent vs. buy?  For example, lets say you purged a circular saw.  You did not use it for more than 3 years but suddenly a piece of siding needs repaired on your house.  While it is time to dip into that purge account, do you want to really spend $150 on a new saw or will a $15 tool rental charge be a better solution considering you will probably not need this saw for another 3 years. We don't want to pay full price for something just to have to consider purging it again,, all the while it is taking up space and losing value.  For $150 you can afford a $15 tool rental charge every 3 years for the next 30 years.  Assuming you would even need it that often, and since you have already purged this item once you probably will not.

As humans we place so much emphasis on ownership.  But where is the value in owning a bunch of crap you don't use and nobody else wants?  So unless you just love dusting and having to go a on treasure hunt every time you set something down....be vigilant in your purging efforts my friends.

-Meredith Warren- Designate A Space

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