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I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to work from home but even though I do, I still face many of the same challenges that working in an office can pose to minimalism. For me, I work better when I have a clean desk and area – my mind stays clear. When a lot of clutter, paper, mail, etc. starts competing for attention, I know I have to stop and check myself to make sure that everything is where is should be and if it isn’t – get rid of it!
Mail is hard for everyone to deal with especially lately with all the political flyers coming in the mail. It got to the point where I HATED to look in the mailbox. There were stacks upon stacks of magazines, sale catalogs, political flyers and just about everything EXCEPT mail.
I actually have two offices believe it or not – one is the “corporate” office so to speak near the warehouse for shipping and the other is my home office where I do most of my writing. There are a few things I’ve put in place when dealing with the mail. The first is it never gets placed in my home office because this area needs to be kept clean and uncluttered if I am going to be able to have a clear mind for writing. So often the case is that the mail gets dumped on the desk in the “corporate” office.
There are a few things that I do now to keep my corporate desk as clean as my writing desk. Hopefully they will help you too:
- Mail. I now stand at the garbage can and immediately toss anything that is not important no – and’s, if’s or but’s – it goes directly into the trash can.
- I have emailed the customer service department of every catalog that arrives in my mailbox to request I be taken off their list for future mailings. I am making progress and the amount of catalogs arriving weekly is decreasing. Woo Hoo!
- I have signed up for every online statement available to keep the paper bills from arriving in my mailbox. Some things you will have to get a paper bill such as property taxes. The goal is to eliminate 90% of the mail that hits your mailbox and you would be surprised how much you eliminate by getting online statements.
It’s not an easy process but I’ve made significant progress is reducing the amount of crap that is delivered to my house each day. Even my mailman has noticed the difference and for a mailman to make a comment that I “must not receive many bills” I know the process is working.
My minimalist mindset truly makes it easy to get untangled from all the paper of the world. You can do it. Imagine how many trees we will save together!
For tips on how to begin your decluttering journey, you can Start Here, or snag a copy of the 30 Day Challenge (our Minimalism and Decluttering eBook).
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