Conquer Holiday Clutter!
The holidays seem to bring a whole new level of paper clutter into your home. Some of it is good clutter, including invitations, cards and presents, while other clutter is not so welcome, such as bills and junk mail. Learning to manage the influx of materials will prevent you from being overwhelmed by clutter or, worse, losing track of important and timely items.
Catalogs and Other Junk Mail
According to Environmental Protection Agency of Ohio, 100 million trees are cut down to produce a year’s supply of junk mail. A day’s worth of junk mail is enough to heat 250,000 homes. There are numerous ways to limit the unsolicited mail that gets delivered to your home.
To stop receiving catalogs, you can go to CatalogChoice, quickly set up an account and select the catalogs that you would like to receive less often or stop receiving altogether. Remember that most retailers post their entire catalog online, along with special Internet-only offers, so a paper catalog isn’t necessary anymore.
If you receive a number of preapproved credit card solicitations, you can call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT to have your name removed from all of the mailing lists managed by the four national credit-reporting agencies.
To have your name removed from other junk mail and charitable mailing lists, your first stop should be the Direct Marketing Association website to fill out their DMA Choice form. The Privacy Rights Clearing House offers additional tips for other types of mailing lists.
Bills
You can save trees, time and the ever-increasing cost of postage by getting and paying your bills online. The next time you get a bill in the mail, go to the bill payment website listed on the bill. Most sites will offer you the option to go completely paperless. Don’t forget to put a quick note in your calendar to remind you to pay each bill on time. If you prefer a printed record of the bill or payment, you can always print it out on the back of scrap paper.
Holiday Cards
Holiday cards are a welcome addition to your home, but they still require your attention and organizational skills. As you receive cards, rip off the return address label and check it against your address book or mailing list. If it’s new, update it or simply tape the label in your address book. Next, verify that you sent a card to the sender. An easy way to keep track is to simply write the year in the corner of that person’s entry in your address book. Or, if your list is computerized, you can easily check to make sure a label was printed for that person.
Invitations
When you receive a holiday party invitation, check your calendar, write it down and respond to the host immediately, before you have a chance to file the invitation away where you’ll forget about the RSVP. If you plan to attend, stick the invitation in your calendar, on the refrigerator or with other important papers so you can refer to it for directions and other details.
Question: How do you deal with holiday mail and other paper clutter?
