MPix cards: great quality, value

I decided this year to send out year-in-review "holiday" cards after a bit of debate. For one, we don't really celebrate winter holidays, so the design choices are limited. Then, there's the price. This year, there's also the fact that we'll likely be sending out birth announcements some time in January for our son. How much mail does anyone care to receive from us? Also, does anyone care about receiving photos of our family in the mail in general? (Thankfully, this guy was never on our distribution list.) But then I figured, life's too short; let's send a card to people who might like to receive one.

After getting bombarded by Black Friday email deals from sites such as Tiny Prints and Minted, companies which I love but are just really expensive, I settled on the significantly cheaper option of MPix. (Sidenote: I don't work for MPix, and this is not a sponsored post.) I feel like MPix is this awesome little secret card maker of the Internet. I'm a long-time customer of the site, but until last year when we sent out New Years cards I'd never realized the site offers high-quality, reasonably priced customizable cards. I don't think many people realize this, either, because of the dozens of cards we get in our mailbox each year not one appears to be from MPix.

MPix was running a 25% off special on Black Friday, so I put in our order that day. I went with the Happy Everything theme because it seemed the most fitting for our family. Plus, I love the way this design, along with so many other MPix designs, includes room for photos on the back of the card as well as the front. Here's the design with the dummy photos:

Here are the photos we used:

I ordered two sets of 25 5x7" flat cards on signature paper with no gloss and rounded corners. The rounded corners cost an extra $2.50, but I prefer the look. I love MPix's signature paper. It is so thick and the photos on it stay true to the colors that I see on my computer screen when arranging the photos on the template. Even if I hadn't placed the order on Black Friday when I paid only $46.45 for the cards and shipping, the total for 50 cards would have been just $50.50 plus $7.95 shipping using standard USPS delivery. I think this is a great deal in the world of customizable cards, considering I would have paid double at Tiny Prints and more than double at Minted (but man do I love those cards, too).

Besides the amazing price and quality of the finished product, I also like the fact that MPix does not print its name anywhere on the card. This is bad advertising on the company's part, but good for me! Also, my order was sent out within about 12 hours of placing it. Even though I chose the slowest shipping speed, I still received the package within five days from the date the cards were printed.

My only complaint about MPix is that in my limited experience with customizable cards, MPix seems to limit the number of customizable options. For example, I thought I would be able to change the greeting on the back of the card. The "wonder and magic of this season" isn't really my style of writing or expressing emotion, but I only realized I couldn't change that after about 45 minutes of playing around with photos and finalizing the card, so I said *whatever* and figured the greeting is what people pay the least attention to (until you blog about it, I guess).

Other users might complain that MPix doesn't offer nearly as many design options as its competitors do, which I think is valid, but that particular issue hasn't been a concern for me.

Oh, and something silly: I happened to choose a design with space for five horizontal photos and space for only one quasi-vertical photo. In attempting to include a photo of Natalie and me as well as one of Natalie and Matt, I discovered that in all of 2013 I managed to avoid having a single horizontal photo of myself with my daughter. Goal for 2014: get horizontal and vertical photos of me and both of my children.

If you're thinking of sending out cards this year and haven't placed an order yet, you might want to give this lesser-known site a chance.

The art of the thank-you note

As I've said before, Matt and I have so much to be grateful for in regard to Baby Awesomerod. The first is simply the fact that she was conceived. The second is the fact that I've had a relatively easy and complication-free pregnancy. The third is that throughout this process we've been surrounded by generous friends and family who have thrown us multiple showers (parts 1 and 2) and given us lots and lots of amazing physical gifts (in addition to the comfort of their presence right down to these final countdown weeks).

I am a firm believer in expressing gratitude. I think this is best done in written form, preferably in the form of a handwritten thank-you note, though there are plenty of times when a nice email does the trick as well. When someone does something awesome for us it's the least we can do to send a nice note saying how thankful we are for what they did and for our relationship with them in general.

Here's my miniature thank-you note station that I keep in our desk with stamps readily available to reduce the chances of procrastinating on note writing because supplies aren't handy.

To toot my own horn (why do we say "not to toot my own horn" when that's obviously what we're doing?), on more than one occasion I've been told I have mad thank-you note writing skills. Although I do not consider this to be a particularly impressive skill, I think this came from years of training at the hands of my mother, who is a huge proponent of handwritten thank-you notes. Here's what I've learned.

First of all, a good thank you note needs to be timely. 

I know everyone has these Emily Post-esque timelines they could follow that give us all some leeway and allow for several months to pass before a note must be sent, but I always think the sooner, the better. As a gift giver if I get a note in the mail months after sending a gift I'm usually like, "Wait, what did I give you? When? I forgot." Everyone likes more immediate feedback. Of course, when life gets in the way of giving timely feedback, "better late than never" is still the best policy.

Second of all, and perhaps most importantly, a good thank-you note needs to be personal. 

This can be achieved by:

1) Specifically mentioning the gift(s) received along with some explanation of why they're great. When the gift is money I think it's always best to give some hints as to how the money will be used.

2) Specifically mentioning something about the occasion being celebrated -- wedding, baby, birthday, new home, etc. Reveal something about yourself. Where are you with wedding planning? Baby prep? Home renovations?

3) Specifically mentioning something personal about the person to whom you're writing. How does he/she fit in with this celebration?

Third of all, a good thank-you note should be of reasonable length. 

A couple sentences just doesn't cut it once you're older than a third grader. Most greeting cards allow space for two or three paragraphs of text, and I like to use the space given to me.

Of course, the most important rule of thank-you note writing is that you actually write the note. 

Almost everyone writes notes for wedding and baby gifts, but I'm always shocked by how, for example, few students write thank-you notes for college letters of recommendation. Those suckers are not easy to churn out and are frankly something most teachers I know dislike doing. Perhaps if more than a handful of students each year would actually send a follow-up email or handwritten note to their teachers there would be fewer of us begrudging the task. (Steps off soap box...)

Do you have any other thank-you note how-to tips? What other ways do you express gratitude?

Tip 38: Return address rubber stamps

To round out mail week, I thought I should mention a new return address method that I love: the personalized rubber stamp. My sister-in-law Amy bought an adorable return address stamp, which I coveted, and then I decide to order my own.

Tip 38: If you're in the market for a return address stamp, The Stampin' Place's Web site is the best place I found online in terms of selection and price.

You can order pre-inked stamps (the most expensive option, at $25.95), self-inking stamps (the mid-level choice, at $22.95) or the wood-mounted red rubber stamp (the cheapest, at $15.95). Because I was making my first return address stamp purchase, I opted for the cheaper stamp variety for this trial run, so wood-mounted rubber stamp it is! After looking at all the options, I actually settled on my first love, the one just like my sister-in-law got (she has good taste!). Here is a link to the specific stamp I purchased, their product PR-90: Circle return address.

The stamp arrived quickly. It was formatted perfectly, and I've been loving it.

Here's what it looks like from the top (after my magical blurring skills to hide our address).

Here's the rubber portion of the stamp.

Right now I have two colors of ink. This is part of the reason why I decided to get this wood-mounted stamp -- so that I could easily change colors and not spend a lot of money. I have black ink and gold ink. I love the look of gold ink on red paper.

When it comes to sending business mailings, I stick to the free return address stickers we have in excess from various charities, but for fun personal mailings I prefer this more personalized stamp.

Next up....home improvement take 1: purchasing tile for a kitchen backsplash.

Tip 36: Forever stamps

Stamps can be cute, but another thing that's cute in my book is saving time and money. This is why, though I often am nearly tempted otherwise, I try to follow...

Tip 36: Stick to purchasing forever stamps for your mailing needs.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like when I was a kid a stamp cost 25 cents for about 15 years, and then all of a sudden the price of a stamp increases every year, sometimes it even feels like multiple times per year. While I realize that last part is probably an exaggeration, I just don't send enough mail to even make it through one pack of 20 stamps before the stamp rate increases. The beauty of a forever stamp (currently the ones with the Liberty Bell image) is that even if you find yourself facing a rate increase mid-roll, it doesn't affect you.

The worst part about buying cute stamps is then having to go back to the post office to get smaller stamps to add to the original stamp.

Also, I rarely buy stamps at the post office because I try to go there as infrequently as possible. Instead, I've had success:

1) Buying stamps at grocery stores. How many other people do this? Usually when I ask my cashier for a pack of stamps he or she can get a little flustered and call for back up. Still, I love killing two birds with one stone, so I love the convenience of grocery store stamp purchasing.

2) Buying stamps online. I tried this for the winter holidays, and it was worth the $1 service charge to avoid waiting in line for decorative stamps at the post office. If there's anything worse than waiting in line at the post office, it would be waiting in line at the post office in December. Somewhat ironically, it took longer for my stamps to arrive in the mail than it takes most of my mail to arrive, but I wasn't in a rush.

3) Buying stamps at ATMs. When select ATMs ask me, "Would you like to purchase stamps?" as I end my transaction, sometimes I say, "Why yes, I would!" Again, it saves another trip to another undesirable place and it doesn't cost any more.

I have never purchased stamps at Costco, mostly because I do not need insane Costco quantities of stamps.

An exception to my forever-stamp rule is when I am about to make a bulk mailing, which is rare, and by bulk I mean more than 20 items, or one book of stamps worth. This is why they produce those wedding and holiday stamps.

Next up...adventures in dog parenting: dealing with a sick puppy (another brief interruption of mail week, to return Saturday afternoon).

Tip 35: Card organization #2

Oh joy! You got a card in the mail. Now what?

Tip 35: Keep cards on display for a week surrounding a big event, then either a) recycle the card b) prepare to use the card or c) file it away.

Let's break this down:

A) Recycle the card. This one is the easiest option. If the card doesn't contain much besides a signature and maybe a not-so-sentimental one or two liner, I usually recycle it. After a week on display, straight to the bin.

B) Prepare to reuse the card. If you like a card enough but don't necessarily need to hold on to it for sentimental reasons, cut off the front flap of the card, the part containing the cover art. Somewhere down the road you may glue a piece of cardstock to the back of this cover and write a nice message. Done! Until the day for reusing the card arrives, file it in your card file (see yesterday's post). I haven't yet reused a card myself, but I have received some from friends and thought it was a nice idea, so today I saved a couple wedding-card covers.

C) File it away. I am not a romantic person, but I am a hugely sentimental person. I know that may seem like a contradiction in terms, but it's really not. Yes, I cry every time a bride walks down the aisle, whether in person or on TV, and I will cry at some movies sometimes, but I'm a pretty even-keel person. But I love preserving memories. And I love getting an amazing card.

So, my hall-of-fame cards make it to my DIY card file. This is not to be confused with my other card file, the one where I keep all my cards-in-waiting of their big debut in someone else's mailbox. Instead these are the cards that compose my make-shift adult yearbook. (Don't you miss yearbooks and writing in them and getting a yearly affirmation as you and all your friends exchange feelings?)

Here is what my card file looks like. The box is something my mother gave me when I was in high school.

The dividers I made myself using pretty card stock paper and my favorite Post-It Durable tabs that I am starting to use everywhere.

The tabs read:

• Holidays
• Special feelings -- Translation: cards where friends and family say incredibly nice things about your relationships. The name comes from what my best friends from high school say when we're about to get emotional.
• Our wedding -- I meant to make a scrapbook of wedding stuff, but this is good enough, and our wedding was three and a half years ago, so that's never gonna happened. With this, special feelings are within reach.
• Love letters -- I have kept every note Matt and I have written each other. There were a lot in the beginning of our relationship. The ones of the present are short and sweet, I like to think because the longer you're with someone the harder it becomes to define why you love each other. It just is. This year for Valentine's Day I made seven little paper hearts with goofy messages on them and hid them all around the house so Matt would find them during his daily routine (on the remote control, on the [lactose-free] milk carton, inside his shower). Somehow this seems more apt than the longer letters of yesteryear.
• Invites/programs -- Yes, I am that person who saves invitations to your wedding. Maybe it will come in handy for you someday. I also saved your wedding program. I love these things. Maybe one day when I start a stationery business these will be useful.

I also keep every card a student writes to me, but those I keep at school in a special folder devoted to happy teacher items, like awards, kind words, my published teacher writings, etc.

Why do I keep cards? For those crappy days when I don't have much energy, or for those times I'm just cleaning out the house and get nostalgic. And because I find gems like this: a wedding card from my friend who wrote, "May you two build a beautiful world in each other." It made me cry today.

Ok, I promise to be way more practical and less sentimental in my next posts.

Next up...bonus green product post!

Tip 34: Card organization #1

It's day four of mail week, and so far we've looked at how to get rid of mail (shred and recycle!), how to cut down junkmail (lots of helpful Web sites!) and how to manage bills (use e-bill and online bill pay). But none of those are very fun. You know what is fun? Actual mail. You can be a part of sending actual mail in the actual mail...

Tip 34: Use (buy or create) a greeting card organizer with dividers so you can easily store cards for special occasions.

My greeting card organizer was actually an unintentional purchase. It's from Costco, and it came filled with cards pre-sorted in various categories. I can't remember if I bought this or if Matt's parents bought this for us (a likely scenario), but I used up the cards long ago and kept the box as a helpful organizational tool.

Here it is from the outside. It's about the width of two side-by-side shoe boxes. (Side note: I love the way it closes: there are magnets on the front flap and right inside the box that make a satisfying "snap" when you close it.)

Open it up, and find these nifty dividers.

 

  

Here are the divider categories, in case you can't read them all:

• Gift enclosure cards
• Birthday
• New baby
• Get well
• Sympathy
• Thank you
• Wedding/love
• Friendship/blank

I have a couple cards in each section. I'll go to a Hallmark store maybe twice a year and stock up on cards. There have been a lot of wedding cards in the last four or five years, and now the trend is baby cards (pattern, anyone?). I try to get cards with certain people in mind so that I can avoid generic or boring cards as much as possible. I file them away in here to save for the wedding, shower, anniversary, birthday or baby's arrival.

How do I remember your birthday? I put it into my Google calendar, and I made it an event that reoccurs annually so I'll never forget!

In the front of second half of the box I have a bunch of blank cards and stationery, which are great for quick notes. While the vast majority of everyday communication with my friends takes place electronically, and I know a lot of people send e-cards or even just e-mails to celebrate events (and I do that, too) I still like to send my long-distance friends some occasional mail love. Doesn't getting a card in the mail make your day?

I've also increasingly gotten into making cards. If you've been following this blog for a while, you might recall that as a child I teamed up with some pool friends to create a "Beaded Apparel" company, where we would sew beads onto shirts. Well, I also ran a company called "Everything Cards, Etc." where my neighbor frenemy (not you, Rene) and I would make cards in her grandparents' basement and sell them from a table on the side of our street. Kind of like an alternative to the lemonade stand. As silly as it was, I kind of missed making cards. So, I started it up again. Now my main supply for my greeting card box is some envelopes I bought at Michael's and some cardstock paper.

If you want to make a box like this yourself, take an over-sized shoe box, take some cardstock paper to serve as dividers, and go to town. I would not have purchased this if I didn't inadvertently own it already.

Next up...you got a card in the mail. Now what?

Tip 33: Reduce your bill (mail)

First of all, I realize this is the latest I have ever blogged in the day (and I bet some of you were thinking, "Maybe today will be the day she breaks her blogging streak!"). Well folks, this post is primarily late because I just got home from my monthly book club (yes, I am a huge proponent of organized activities, obviously, and I will blog about its evolution later).

I wish I could tell you how to reduce the number of bills you receive in a month and how to reduce the amount you owe each month, but the only thing I can say is ask for special deals, especially any perks you may get through your employer, and/or threaten to switch to a different service (we're mostly talking about TV, cell phones, Internet...good luck negotiating with the power companies, though I am sure someone succeeds here). At most, though, this knocks $10 or maybe $15, $20 off your monthly bills, but not enough to retire at 35 (my dream). What I can say, though, is that if you haven't already....

Tip 33: To further reduce the amount of paper that comes into your house, your need for shredding and recycling, and to reduce your chances of a late payment, conduct all of your bill pay online.

Up until a year ago I was still holding on to doing some of my bill pay through snail mail, namely for our mortgage. I don't know why I stuck to this. I think it was partially because I didn't trust online bill pay for everything (but still did for most things), and partially because our mortgage company would charge an incredibly high fee for every mortgage paid through their site. It made no sense. Then Matt said, "Why don't you use our bank's Web site for online bill pay?" Why didn't I think of that? Setting it up takes about two minutes, and the payoff (in time) is huge.

Here's how our monthly bills work:

1) As teachers we get paid once a month, on the last work day of the month. Some of my non-teacher friends think this is outrageous and don't know how we cope. The answer is, it's very easy: your bills are due once a month.

2) I manage all the daily household finances. Matt knows way more than me about the stock market and the intricacies of loans, so I let him handle that, but I'm more type A and never miss a payment, so this is my strength.

3) The only paper bills we receive in the mail each month are: 1) mortgage statements, which I file into a special binder only for mortgage documents and 2) the water bill, which we get once every three months and the company will not do e-bill. I love e-bill. I try only to keep one copy of the most recent water bill on file and shred the rest.

4) We pay the following bills through these means each month:

• The mortgage is due the start of each month, so that's set up through online bill pay. I don't do automatic pay for this because it's such a huge amount and I want to see it go through (though I realize I could set up automatic pay).
• The credit card #1 is paid online through the card's site at the start of each month. I do this manually. Also, we charge almost all of our everyday expenses mostly to keep track of all purchases and our budget, but we pay the card off in full every month (and we save a lot of money each month, too).
• Homeowner's association dues are automatic bill pay at the start of each month.
• Auto and home insurance (one charge) is automatic bill pay at the start of each month.
• Electricity is automatic bill pay at the middle of each month.
• Gas is something I pay manually through the company's site at the middle of each month.
• TV/Internet/cell phone (one charge) is automatic bill pay at the end of each month.
• Water is every three months, and I pay this manually through bill pay.
• Credit card #2 has occasional small charges, so we pay that off through the company's site as needed.

5) For the smaller items that are not set up for automatic bill pay (gas, credit card #2, water) I pay those bills as soon as I receive the e-bill email notification. For the larger items that are not set up for automatic bill pay (mortgage, credit card #1), I pay those bills at the end of each month on pay day. It's fun to have (what seems like) a lot of money in our account for about 8 hours.

It may seem like a lot to manage, but it's actually not. Here's my formula: I see a lot of money in my bank account = sign it's time to hand some money over. I get an email notification = time to pay a smaller bill. Everything else is taken care of for me. If you're a control freak like me and you're worried your automatic bill pay won't go through on time, never fear: it is more reliable than you are.

Lastly, just the other day I experienced one of the negative side effects of having paper bills laying around. Because we always get paper copies of the water bill in the mail, and this month was water month, I was looking at this month's bill the other day and thought I had not paid it. Then I realized if I had not paid it, it was overdue. Then I logged onto bill pay and realized that I had, of course, paid it the day it arrived in the mail, but my heart raced a tiny bit when I thought I would have to pay a $3.50 late fee and tarnish my perfect record.

Even though junkmail and bills are yucky, there are some better sides to mail, too. Let's start looking at some of those tomorrow!

Tip 32: Stop the (junkmail) insanity!

Warning: While I am a believer in short-ish blog posts, today's has to go a little longer, because there is a lot to say about junkmail!

Tip 32: To keep most of your junkmail from ever reaching your door, sign up for one or several online mail removal services.

In early 2008 I signed up with a site called ProQuo to remove Matt and me from a seemingly endless mound of mailing lists. This free site took me off credit card offers, circular and value-pack (or ValPak, which is also online!) coupon mailings, and copious amounts of catalogs. By March 2008 I had reduced our junkmail from about eight pieces a day to about one or two a day. Even better news, those credit card offers that I loathe basically ceased to arrive. Then, oddly enough, in the last month I've noticed that we're starting to get more junkmail than we have in the last two years. I think it's because ProQuo took us off some lists for just two years.

So, I went back to the ProQuo site the other day. It looks like a generic "site under construction." Then I remembered getting an email from ProQuo about a year ago that said this:

The site I loved, that offered its services free of charge was now going to make me pay? No thank you. And now, apparently, the site hardly exists, at least at this moment.

Back to the drawing board! Without ProQuo, what options do I have to painlessly remove myself from junkmail lists for free?

Turns out, there are several:

DMAChoice.org -- this site is run by the Direct Marketing Association. It's free. Signing up only takes a moment, but unlike ProQuo, which used to remove me from many mailing lists with the click of just one button, DMAChoice makes me sort through contact information for lots of companies. This is useful for removing my name from auto insurance company lists, such as AllState and Geico that must send me at least an offer each week. So, it provides me with email, phone and mail contact info, and of course I choose the email option, open a new message and type a generic "To Whom It May Concern: Please remove me from your mailing list" message.

 OptOutPrescreen.com -- If you sign up for DMAChoice and you want to get your name removed from credit card offers, you'll be directed to this site. I was also directed to this site back in the day when I thrived from the wonder that was ProQuo. This site is a joint venture among the four major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion. (When you get your credit report or you have a credit check run when you're applying for something like a home loan, you will get lots of numbers from these agencies, or all except for Innovis, which has never shown up in our reports.) The site says:

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion, are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance. The FCRA also allows you the ability to "Opt-Out", which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you.

Removing your name through the OptOutPrescreen site will take you about two minutes. Even if you have no plans to use DMAChoice, this small step is probably worth it.

DirectMail.com's National Do Not Mail List -- The name of this is slightly deceiving because I think it makes people link it to the National Do Not Call Registry, which is a government-run program. This Do Not Mail List is run by DirectMail.com, a direct marketing company. But, I will cut them some slack because this is yet another free site, and it's also exceptionally easy to use. Enter your contact information, receive an email, confirm an email, and then get another email in return. I just did this one today as an experiment, and I got this nice little email in return also encouraging me to add my name to the OptOutPrescreen site as well as the DMAChoice site. So, I think it's safe to say that I have pretty thoroughly covered my bases.

CatalogChoice.org -- This is another free site that used to link through ProQuo, and it has been amazing at reducing my catalog intake. I personally don't like to browse catalogs. I'd rather check store Web sites because by the time I scan a catalog the store has already sold out of my size anyway. Better to know what I'm getting into by going straight to the source and checking size/color availability for any clothing purchases. One word of caution: Even though CatalogChoice is awesome at keeping you off mailing lists, once you make an online purchase at certain stores (I'm talking to you, JCrew and Victoria's Secret) you will need to immediately remove yourself from their mailing list again because they will love to send you weekly catalogs. Returning to CatalogChoice or even sending a customer service email should do the trick.

41pounds.org -- Here's a site I have not and most likely will not try, but I thought I'd throw this one in here because it's often mentioned when it comes to junkmail removal. The site promises to reduce your junkmail intake by 80 to 95 percent, which is nice, but that's also what the free sites can accomplish. Additionally, the site promises to achieve these results for you for five years, eliminating your 41 points of junkmail, but it also costs 41 pounds. The site justifies this cost by saying that it equals 2 cents per day, but to me that's still $41 more than free. The site also claims in its FAQ section:

There are some companies that offer free services which might sound similar to 41pounds.org, but if you read the fine print you’ll find out that they do NOT provide the complete five-year service that 41pounds.org provides. Some services only stop catalogs, not the rest of your junk mail — like credit card offers which can lead to identity theft. Others only stop a portion of your junk mail — just from the companies that are part of their group. Some that claim to stop your junk mail actually make their money from direct mail companies who very much want to send you their marketing mail. 41pounds.org removes your name from the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) list, which applies to the companies that are members of this marketing trade association. You can contact DMA yourself, but you will find this is not a complete solution since they don’t stop credit card applications and many other forms of junk mail (such as PennySavers, ValPak, etc.)

Still, I just don't buy it (pun!). If you want to do it yourself and for free, you may have to visit two or three sites and spend a little more time, but I don't think what this site offers is $41 better than what I can achieve for free in about 5-10 minutes max.

Here are a couple quick recommendations for using these sites:

• Make sure they're free.
• Make sure they're easy to use. (This is part of my argument against DMAChoice; it seems needlessly complicated.)
• Avoid ones that expect you to send a letter in the mail because, let's face it, that's both: 1) annoying and 2) ironic, and you're never going to get around to putting that letter in the mail. I've been there.
• With his or her permission, also remove other people who share your address. Most likely they want you to anyway, so encouraging your friends and loved ones to go as green as possible and reduce clutter is always a good idea.
• As with so many things related to organization, be patient. It may take until May for you to really notice a reduction in your junkmail, but it will be worth it.

So, now I'm hoping that my junkmail purge round 2 will go well. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Tip 31: Shred it, shred it good

Welcome to mail week! When I talk to my friends about the organizational struggles that get them down, mail is usually at the top of the list. It's something that, whether you like it or not, you have to deal with six days a week (so I guess it's appropriate to start mail week on a Sunday!). I've adopted several strategies for dealing with the mail that comes into our house. Most of it gets immediately recycled. The mortgage statements get filed away in a special folder for housing papers. Then there are the credit card offers, which I absolutely hate. Here's what I do...

Tip 31: Make a "to shred" pile, place it on top of your shredder, and keep your shredder out in a space which will make you likely to shred often.

I am moderately concerned about security and the nefarious people who engage in identity theft, so I try to leave as short of a paper trail as possible. I've tried really hard to get myself off of almost all unsolicited credit card offers, but they still come through occasionally. I take out all the envelopes and additional papers inside the credit mailing and recycle those; then I find the papers with the numbers at the bottom indicating some aspect of my identity. I don't just want those papers in the recycling. So, I shred.

I used to keep my shredder inside our office closet. But then I had to get it out from behind some other stuff before I could use it. Now I just keep it in a little corner next to our office closet, and I keep it unplugged. Keeping it unplugged is not only a way to avoid vampire electricity usage, but it's also an extra safety precaution. Once I have a few documents to shred, I plug it in and go to town.

At ease, sir

I bought this Auroa AS660CM shredder at Bed Bath and Beyond back in 2003, and it has not let me down. (BB&B doesn't sell this model anymore, but it's similar to this one in size and price, and this new one claims to handle staples, too.)  It says it can accept up to six papers at once, but I usually play it safe and stick to about three at a time. I do not feel like buying another shredder anytime soon.

Ready for my close-up

What do I do with the shreddings? I can't just put them in my recycling bin. Most recycling companies won't accept shredded paper. I have used them as packing material when sending items in the mail. I have also thrown them away, because I ran out of uses for shredded paper. If I had a small animal, like the never-ending collection of gerbils I had in elementary school, I could use them as lining for the bottom of their cage. Or if I composted I could add them to that. I read that some people use the shreddings as a layer directly underneath mulch as some sort of natural pesticide. I might try to in the spring when we bring our herb garden back to life.

It's my time to shine...tearing through the credit card companies...

What have you done with your shreddings?

The most important lesson for me has been to keep my shredder easily accessible, and this has kept unwanted mail from becoming overwhelming.

But as I mentioned earlier, I have successfully cut down on much of the junk mail we receive, eliminating much of the need for shredding to begin with.

How did I cut down on junk mail? Stop by tomorrow!