Tag Archives: junk mail

Keep the Clutter Out

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I have previously written about the importance of stopping clutter coming into your home.  Decluttering is only one weapon in a multi-faceted approach to keeping your home clutter-free.

One one the biggest culprits is mail.  We have eliminated most of our mail by having a ‘No Junk Mail’ sticker on our mailbox and opting to receive as much information as possible electronically.However, today we actually received 4 pieces of mail  Here they are.

Mail

There are 2 local publications – The Range News (newspaper) and The Hinterland Times which is more of a magazine format.  I always read them to keep up with local issues and then they will be recycled.  The item on the top of the pile is the first piece of election advertising material that we have received.  It was read and then went straight into the recycling.  Finally, the large yellow envelope was the most interesting piece of all.  It was a bundle of brochures and information from the company where we purchased our solar panels.  We contacted them to see if they could provide some literature for the Sustainable House Open Day which is coming up at the beginning of next month.

To be recycled

This is what went into the recycle bin immediately – envelopes, election information and the catalogues which are inserted in the local paper.

Reading materialThese are the 2 local publications which I have set aside to read.

Solar informationThe solar information which I will file until it is required next month.

By dealing with the mail immediately there are no piles to be sorted out later on and no clutter that is not required.

Stopped in the Tracks

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It is one thing to declutter stuff from your home but even better is to stop it before it gets in the door and gains a foothold in the house.  I was reminded of this theory with respect to junk mail when I read the most recent post from The Recovering Dabbler.

Delona’s post is specific to the US but we have our own problems with junk mail here in Australia.  For many years we have had a ‘No Junk Mail’ sticker on our letterbox which generally stops the hand-delivered supermarket catalogues and the like.  Posted mail is a little more difficult.

Some years ago I grew weary of receiving an endless stream of pre-approved credit card and other offers with Reply Paid envelopes.  I used to just throw them in the recycling but one day decided to return to the sender in the Reply Paid envelope.  This meant that the company had to pay the postage and also use somebody’s time to open and read the returned mail.  I did not return the application form but simply a couple of random pieces of paper such as pizza vouchers or something else equally unrelated but most importantly I included a slip of paper with the following statement typed on it:

“Give consideration to my precious time which is being wasted on opening your unsolicited mail, by refraining from sending it in the future.”

Although my name was not on any of the returned information the company were able to decipher my information from the embedded barcode on the Reply Paid envelope.  The offers ceased quite quickly.  Within 3-4 months of initiating this strategy my unsolicited mail went from an average of 2 pieces per week to nothing and has remained that way for a number of years.

No unsolicited mail saves me time, mental energy and frustration.  The trees and paper that are not used are also significant over time.

What to Keep?

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From my own experience and what I have read, I think the most difficult thing to declutter and keep under control is paperwork.  It seems to be so insidious.

After my post the other day, titled ‘Gone From the Office’, Angasagain asked, “How long do you keep bills and bank statements for? Some of my filing sleeves are bulging but I’m not sure how ruthless I should be.”

The first thing to remember is that there are legal requirements regarding documents relating to tax returns.  In Australia, you need to keep all taxation papers and relevant documents, such as bank statements, for 5 years after the completion of the tax year.  This may be different in other countries so it is important to check the local laws.

I have set up the suspension files in the filing cabinet with one for each year.  At the moment we have:

Current year 2011-2012

5 previous years

2010-2011
2009-2010
2008-2009
2007-2008
2006-2007

When the next tax return is done, I will discard (shredded) the 2006-2007, add 2011-2012 to the previous years and create a new “Current year” which will be 2012-2013.  This is based on the principle of 1 in, 1 out.  If you do not do this regularly you are likely to find that you have 20 years worth of tax returns bulging out of the filing cabinet.

In conjunction with the annual cull of tax stuff I also get rid of the relevant year of bank statements.  Remember to shred all documents carefully to protect your security.

For all other paperwork, I find the best method is to ask yourself why you are keeping it and what possible scenario could arise where you would need to refer to it.

Household bills – we usually keep for 1 – 2 years so that we can compare them with the same period of the previous year.  I do not keep a record of how much we spend on particular bills over an entire year but some people do.

Product warranties, instructions and receipts are kept for the life of the item.  I would suggest setting up a 6 monthly schedule to review all of these documents and discard any that are no longer relevant.

In order to reduce the amount of paper, we choose to receive whatever bills possible via email and save them in the electronic format.  We only print them if required.

Being a good gatekeeper is essential.  Stop that paper before it gets in the door.  Consider putting a ‘NO JUNK MAIL’ sticker on your mailbox.  What will you miss?  Store catalogues advertising stuff that you didn’t even know you needed?  Flyers advertising services that you do not require?  If you seriously want to follow what grocery specials are available, I believe these can be accessed online although I personally have not done this.

Everyone’s requirements will be different.  This may depend on whether you are renting or have a mortgage, are studying, employed or receiving Centrelink benefits.  The most important thing is to review all paperwork critically when it arrives in your home and decide:

Do I need to receive this information?
Do I need to retain this information?

Please tell me how you go about deciding what documents come into your home and more importantly what gets to stay and for how long.