Paper & Mail Avoidance at Home

Paper & Mail Avoidance at Home

Paper and mail are necessary evils in our world and one with which many of my clients struggle. Common strategies of avoiding mail include not opening it, allowing it to pile up, hiding it in boxes and bags and in corners, drawers and closets. Out of that mail is a mixture of bills, important docs, junk mail, subscriptions and the like. In addition to mail, are children’s school work/artwork, business cards, flyers and notices and important work papers. By not having a system in place, I find some clients avoid paper so they don’t have to make a decision about it.

Unfortunately, avoidance never works. It only exacerbates the problem. My goal when working with clients is to open the bags, boxes, drawers and other hiding places to uncover what’s there and to begin sorting and eliminating what is no longer needed or wanted. Some clients will still try to deflect and say they will do it later. I tell them, “no,” I am here now and we are going to address the papers before us. That being said, in some cases, if there is a box of historic or reference papers that aren’t urgent to be examined, then I will have the client put that aside to address the more important and urgent items before us.

Once the client begins going through each page, we begin to fill up recycle and shred bins. It is important in this era of data stealing, to always shred docs with any personal information. This includes old computers and laptops, destroying the hard drive so sensitive data won’t fall into the wrong hands. Sometimes, whole boxes of papers can be immediately eliminated when the client knows its contents no longer hold any value to her.

I tell people that once we put a piece of paper into a folder and then close the drawer on it, it is out of sight and out of mind. Well imagine doing that for years and years and the accumulation of material adds up quickly. Scouring out files on a regular basis is important for eliminating out dated and no longer needed paper.

Eliminating paper at the source is key. I tell people to get as much information electronically as possible. Getting paperless statements for bank, credit card and investments is key to cutting down on paper coming into the home in the first place. Delete it at its source and simplify what you have to handle at home. If you are on numerous catalog mailing lists, call each one and get your name taken off. Save a tree and your peace of mind.

Create a system when paper comes into the home so you address it either right when it comes in–stopping by the recycle bin first–and sorting mail you need to keep and file and that which requires action such as payment or registration. Create up to date files, if you use them, for the most pertinent docs and have others stored electronically. You may want to scan everything digitally and store it to the cloud, so it could be accessed from anywhere you are.  Simplify your system so it is easy to manage and use and that if something happened to you, someone else could easily access it and use it. Most of all, don’t avoid the paper. It’s not going anywhere and chances are, there’s more coming in behind it.