Although paper mail certainly has dwindled with e-mail, online bill pay, and digital magazine subscriptions, it still has a way of piling up. (BTW, does anything look good in a pile? I mean, just the word: pile. Ick.) Here are some creative DIY projects that will finally tame the mail beast and put the pile where it belongs–out of existence.
First up to bat is Noodlehead’s darling mail organizer:
Follow this jump for the entire tutorial. Although these sorters are usually seen on desks, hanging them on the wall in multiples and adding hooks for keys is inspired.
Fresh paint, paper and metal labels turn two simple ‘in’ and ‘out’ trays into a pretty mail station.
I spotted this project a while back, but it’s still one of my most favorite ideas for getting mail under control. Full how-to instructions can be found at Bright and Blithe.
This might look like an ordinary book, but it’s really Jackie’s clever mailbox. It’s one of those a faux book/boxes that she covered in an unobtrusive paper in which she stashes her ‘keep’ mail. This would also be a good way to deal with that paper dandruff that seems to accumulate on countertops.
Plain labelled clothespins can help with the sorting process. Although I spotted these (sold) on Etsy, they’d take about a minute to replicate.
I did something similar with spring clips and my label maker a few years back.
Oftentimes the most humble things can be used in extraordinarily new ways. Take for example these old furnace grates.
Or an old sink rack. Michelle repurposed one to make her mail station. It might not be the prettiest in this roundup, but it certainly takes the prize for the most clever re-use!
Now that we have a bunch of ideas for how to transform that pile into something pretty, we still might need help with culling through the accumulation. De-clutter queen Julie Morganstern suggests, when doing so, we keep in mind SPACE. That is…
Sort items into categories
Purge what you don’t use or need
Assign a home
Containerize to allow for easy retreval
Equalize, as in re-evaluate your current mail sorting system from time to time to see if it’s still working for you.
For more hints on how to tame mail clutter, check out this post at The Home We Make.