Organizing our Mail

Something I've learned about being a home owner is that it comes with a LOT of mail. I thought we got a lot of junk mail when we had an apartment...it was nothing compared to what we get now. And I don't know about you, but I don't always have to time to carefully sort through the mail each day, filing important papers away for when we need them later. This means for a while the papers we knew we needed to keep were just piling up on the built in desk in our living room. 

I have this theory about organization; I think it is best to make a slight change to a natural habit than expect perfection. I can say that I will file away important pieces of mail every day, but in reality I'm going to be too busy most of the time. Instead, I've taken what seems to be our natural habit (piling it up on the desk) and tweaked it to be more organized.

I bought this tin on Fab because I thought it was cute and I knew I could use it for something. It holds 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper, which is the perfect size.

I keep it on a shelf at the desk where the papers were piling up. Now, when we bring in the mail, we do a quick sort. Junk mail in the trash, open anything that looks urgent and everything else in the tin. Then when the tin gets full (which happens quicker than you'd think) I can carry it over to the study and start filing. 

It's just a little way to keep piles of paper from gathering everywhere. And the limited size of the tin forces me to file the papers inside at regular intervals. 

Like I said before, I think the best organisational methods stem from your natural habit. Do you have an example of tweaking a natural habit to be more organized?