How to Find Room for a Mailing & Filing Center in Your Home

Many home decorating magazines publish articles on setting up a mail center in your home. Most of the time the articles show a neatly appointed desk in a kitchen or foyer.

However, there are many single Moms and Dads living in small ranch style homes or apartments who couldn't possibly squeeze one more piece of furniture into their all ready cramped spaces.

For those who don't live in McMansions, there is another way to organize your mail and files. Buy one of those plastic holders for hanging files, 12 hanging files, 12 folders, a monthly calendar, and a wastebasket. Now, find an area near the exit normally used. Place the plastic holder, the calendar, and the wastebasket there. Label your 12 regular folders January through December. Put these inside the hanging folders.

When your mail arrives sort it in this area.

Toss your junk mail in the wastebasket.

As you open your bills, mark on the calendar at least 6 days before each bill needs to be paid and put these together in a pile.

Next, file the bills that you have paid in the hanging folders according to the month paid, placing receipts in the regular folders.

At tax time take the plastic folder with all of your paid bills to your tax advisor. Or, if you do your own taxes move to the area in the house where you do taxes.

It may not be glamorous, but it works for keeping you organized.

Keeping everything filed by month speeds up and simplifies the time it takes to file items. Unless you own a home business, there is no need to keep everything in umpteen different categories/folders. Most of us have recurring monthly bills, so if a question arises about a bill it is easy enough to look through one month's bills to find the item needed. I used to file everything by categories, but found I was spending way too much time filing. Since I have started using the chronological method of filing, I have cut in half the amount of time I spend filing.