PROBLEM: Saving paper
catalogues you MIGHT order from stacks up, literally. This causes more piles of
paper clutter in your home. How many times has a company mailed you a catalogue
with the "this could be your last catalog" warning stamped on its front. Yea,
right...in all reality (and speaking as a welcome and experienced recipient of
mail order catalogues), there is no chance it's your last catalogue. Ever! Even
when you're dead and buried, that catalogue will be going to "or the current
resident". But right now it's you who has to deal with this wanted, yet
unwanted, paper clutter.
SOLUTION: Shortly after you receive a mail
order catalogue, tear out the pages from the catalogue of just the items that
you're interested in ordering. Complete the order form (preferably in pencil
because you may change your mind later about some items). Then stash those pages
and the order form with your bills due. Trash the remainder of the paper
catalogue.
Once the impulse passes, you may not want to order all or
some of the items (which is why you completed the order form in pencil). And if
you still do, the only information you need is there in your "bills due" file to
handle on payday (or whatever day you designate).
Also, keep all of your incoming catalogues together. For instance, store them in
a decorative tabletop basket (see one pictured below). BUT set a specific time for browsing these
catalogues. Perhaps determine that during the first week of every month you'll
spend a leisurely hour or two flipping through the catalogue pages. At that
time, either follow the solution above where you draft the order form and keep
pages only OR trash every catalogue (even if you have not looked at its
contents).
This set of
wicker storage baskets
 from Stacks and Stacks will work for holding your
monthly supply of store catalogues. Use one basket to hold your monthly paper
catalogues and the remaining two baskets in the set for other types of storage.
If your bulging postal mail box is any indication, it won't be long before your
catalogue in-basket is full again for the following month. That's why it's
important you create ongoing routines such as this one to handle paper
catalogues. Because whether you invite paper into your home or it just shows up
without an invitation, you must handle incoming paper ongoing. Otherwise you'll
be buried by stacks of paper clutter in no time at all.
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