do you have post/mail hanging around your hallway?

[Toowittoowoo]

I am so sick of the tiny table in the hallway always being covered in open and unopened mail but I don't know what to do with it until I have time read it properly/file it/discuss the ccontents with DH etc. Or it is DH's mail that sits there for days until I nag him to do something with it.

I know this is really dull but what do the rest of you do? We don't have an office or spare room anymore so can't just dump them all in there like I used to and I can't think of anywhere else to put them.

I am currently thinking of buying a bigger hall table so it can hold more than 2 letters without them all falling on the floor but I was wondering first whether anyone had a system that worked a bit better?

Not in the hall, but all over the kitchen sideboard!! I've started a weekly shred/recycle/file regime, it's got a bit better. A bigger table will only mean more mail gets left which means more mess

We don't have a hall, so no hall table either. Post gets opened, then either binned or dealt with. My parents have a letter holding thing that is bursting at the seams with junk mail, bills etc.

If you deal with things straight away then they don't cause clutter. Do you have a pinboard anywhere? Anything that needs to be kept (rail tickets for example) is pinned on the board which keeps it relatively tidy.

The key with post is deal with it straight away... My DH is awful and plonks it here there and everywhere.

I tried to make as many things as I can paperless billing, but the amount of junk mail we get is horrendous! That and bloody pizza, Indian, Chinese takeaway leaflets throughout the day. Lazy distributors chucked 23 of the same leaflet through my door the other day! 23!!!!

I am lazy, but self aware. I know I won't file things properly for too long, so I have a document box in the hall and just shove any filing in there. I replace it every January, or when it's full, and label with the year. That way, I can find things I need (and I don't need to do that often), by looking through the right box. I have a shredder under the hall table for anything I don't want to keep.

Actually, what makes it work for us is that I open DH's financial mail, and he opens mine, so there is no need for envelopes to sit. But I know that's not for everyone.

If you're not going to deal with it immediately (and, face it, most of us don't and won't), why not get something that holds mail? Like an upright file box like thing or a desktop organizer?

Madonna! That is a fucking brilliant idea. My kitchen sides are saved!

my hall is full of it and my dd's A level books that she drops out of her bag if she doesn't need it. do have plastic trays but it is a pain.

I think you need to deal with mail as soon as it arrives. Try to limit the amount of mail you receive by going for paperless bank statements, elec bills, gas bills etc. Junk mail goes straight in the bin. Set up direct debits so you don't get so many bills in the post. Deal with DH's mail too, if it sits for days he can't be that bothered about it anyway. If a piece of mail does need to kept at least open it and bin the envelope.

pick up the post and deal with it straight away. Envelopes and anything unsolicited straight in the recycling. A filing tray for items to be filed. An 'action' tray for something that needs doing.

go paperless as much as possible to reduce it.

Madonna that is genius! I want a book of a load of tips like that!

I deal with it immediately, it goes in recycling bin, shredder or filing cabinet, as appropriate!

Thinking about it, one of us picks up the post and carries it to the bin. If it's for the other person, it gets dropped off at the dining table on the way past. If it can't go in the bin (and most can) it gets dealt with immediately.

Nowhere to put it in the hall. It gets taken to the kitchen, junk recycled immediately, own post opened and envelope binned. Scan, decide if action, recycle or file, and try to do or put on table to do later otherwise bin or drop into filling drawer. Dh files when he can.

If dh has been at home 2-3 days and hasn't opened his post it gets sucked in the filling drawer unopened. Can't have clutter just because he cba opening a letter.

One poster suggests pinboard - we used to have board criss-crossed with ribbon to keep mail if others needed to see it, bottom row if urgent and rest either filed or dealt with - no furniture required. Agree stopping junk mail's best system.

Straight through to the kitchen, opened over the bin so envelopes and unwanted bits can be thrown. Statements etc. straight in the concertina file that's kept in the hallway cupboard so we have to pass it to leave the kitchen, anything requiring action put on the fridge with a magnet.

Yes I do. Dh seems to have a phobia about opening letters, they can sit there for days and when he has opened them he still keeps all the bloody empty envelopes because putting them in the bin is too easy !

Ours go:

important and needs kept - kitchen drawer
Junk/not needing kept - df and ds shred once opened.