I don’t have many “hates” but something that I do hate is wasted time!!! I’m always trying to be the most efficient with my time spent; trying to declutter, organize and save time. Therefore, as an extremely busy person, I’m always looking for ways to take away clutter and better organize my world in order to lessen my crazy busy life and make the most of every minute given.
One of the biggest time stealers tends to be mail and paperwork in general. I have tried to implement “OHIO” into my life. No, not the State Ohio, but OHIO, an acronym for, “Only Handle It Once”. So simple but yet genius!
The biggest OHIO change that I have made in my life, freeing up extra hours a week, is how I look and sort my mail/post. I used to look through the mail, set it down, look at it again, set it down….Now, I take it and immediately sort it.
We bought desk organizers and the post/mail is either filed in a slot for bills, a slot for magazines/catalogs, packages, or other. We have a draw where we throw all adverts and coupons into for sorting before shopping. Our desk organizer also has a place for pens, stamps, check books, letter opener and more. Everything needed to sort letters and pay bills. This post contains some affliate links.
Then we sit down for 20 minutes every other week, collect from the slot where we pay bills, pay the bills, and throw the rest away. If we are headed to the doctor’s office or have a moment at home to sit, we then grab one of the magazines or catalogs from that categorized slot, look at it, then throw it away.
Seems simple but honestly, I can’t tell you how much time my husband and I both used to waste, every week, sorting through mail and looking at catalogs or flyers 2-4 times before finally doing something with it. Orgazing the OHIO way has saved a lot of time and stress.
