One of my unofficial (or, didn’t realize it until I started doing it) goals for the year is organizing all of my mail. I’m pretty organized already as I keep a spreadsheet of all incoming and outgoing mail but, with all of the moves I’ve made in the last 3 years, I figured I might have lost a letter or two. If you didn’t know, I keep every piece of personal mail that I receive, and I have been doing that since I started sending mail in 2000.
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been poking through all my letters and postcards and making sure I’ve logged them on the spreadsheet. So far, so good! I’m almost finished going through all of my mail. I will be happy once this project is over!
The next step is finding a different way to store everything. I currently use those accordion file folders which worked out well when I didn’t have a lot of mail. Now that my collection is growing, I can’t shut any of the 4 folders that I have and I have a whole Trader Joe’s bag full of mail to put away! I’m dreaming of the day I will have the space and money to have one of these bad boys. If I ever got something like that, I would have a drawer designated for each of my pen pals, and drawers for the different websites I send mail through (like Postcrossing or Swap-bot). It will be the best.
How do you organize your mail? Do you keep all of the letters or postcards you receive?
Dactyl Life 
I keep all the letters and postcards I receive (just in boxes). As I’m constantly moving, they are a bit… hmm… disorganized. But I keep track of all the mail I got and send in a spreadsheet, just not to forget answering! I have a lot of non-blogged mail from the past. I’m not sure I will publish that one day. Too much work!
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I’ve always had big ideas to scan in all the mail I’ve received prior to me blogging about mail but, holy cow, that would be a lot of work! I love having a spreadsheet of it all so I can quickly find when I sent or received something!
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Oh man, your organization amazes me! Good on you! I just keep things in a small, plastic drawer tower. Even when I was logging things into a spreadsheet they just got stored in a drawer. I seem to recall going in and sorting out stuff from one year and putting it in another plastic container and putting that in the Closet of No Return…who knows. That’s one benefit of not sending/receiving as much as I used to…I don’t have to worry about where it all ends up. Most of the postcards/artcards I get now go up on the “artwall” above my worktable. At one point last year I tried keeping a mail art scrapbook for incoming stuff. It was fun and exciting for the first month or so, but once I got behind, I couldn’t muster the energy/interest to get back up with it.
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I’m kind of embarrassingly crazy about my mail, haha. I like the idea of not caring about how it’s stored or organized but I can’t help it!
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I love how frequently you are posting! I have a fabric container by my desk where I put mail and when that gets full I empty that into various boxes in my closet. Sometimes I go through and sort the letters according to who sent them. My parents, and certain people I exchange a lot of mail with. I’ve done fits and starts of recording my mail and right now I’m on my longest running recording streak. I do that in a notebook.
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Me too! I’m really trying to keep up posting 5 days of week. I really love the idea of sorting mail by pen pal instead of by location. It just makes more sense!
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I just posted about this on my blog today! Eva led me to your post 🙂
I keep extensive digital records but holding onto all the physical mail is beyond my capabilities. I get 30-40 pieces of mail a week. It is impossible to store that much mail.
One of my goals is to scan/photograph all my incoming mail. For now I keep as much as I can, and use lots in my mail journal. That’s what I wrote about today on my blog at postmuse.com
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How funny we posted about this on the same day! I’m impressed by the amount of mail you receive. I doubt I could keep all of my mail if I was getting that much per week! The digital records are so handy, especially when I want to quickly find out if I sent, or received, a letter from so-and-so.
Good luck on scanning/photographing all of your mail! That’s always been a goal of mine but it is so time consuming.
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I just figured out why your name sounded so familiar. Hi Tara! I’ve updated your address so expect mail 🙂
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And, hello to you! Looking forward to mail 🙂
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Wow! Love your organization spreadsheet. Former accountant here – I love spreadsheets. 😉
That bag in the first photo is from Trader Joe’s, yes? I have the same one!
I’ve recently admitted that I have an organization addiction, so I’m very much in love with this post and your plans!
❤ Kelsea | Kels Shark
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Yes! I make spreadsheets for everything. I love how easy they are to edit! It’s so fun to organize but, good god, I have so much trouble staying organized!
The bag is from Trader Joe’s. I mostly shop there for their desserts/treats 🙂
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Long-time snail mailer…just found your blog! Following and excited to read more from you!
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Hooray! Thank you for the follow! 😀
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