Hellobee Boards

Directly into recycling bin if not needed. Onto counter to deal with and once kids in bed, dealt with and then filed, pic taken and recycled! Keeping it as short term as possible so pile doesn't add up because I am so bad for piles!!

Similar to Catgirl, we have a wall organizer in our foyer with a few folders in it - To Do, File, Shred.

To Do gets anything I need to take action on and can't just throw away right away.
File is where I put things I need to eventually put in the filing cabinet.

Every day when I get the mail / school papers, if something doesn't need to be done immediately that instant I just put them in the right folder. Once a week I go through the folders and either pay the bill / file / shred whatever is in there.

Also above the organizer is a bulletin board where I pin invitations for events / my kids school calendars.

@Mrs. Pen: Honestly, the biggest thing for us was just picking a way we wanted to handle it and sticking to it. We made it a goal to do it every day for a month and evaluate if it was working. After that month it was such a habit that we don't have to think about it now - we just do it. If you use specific folders I recommend buying extras, we have tweaked out folder categories a few times and I'm glad the folders all still match.

Also, I thought I would hate having it in my dining room but I like having it somewhere I will see it everyday it helped me make it part of my daily routine. I would slightly prefer it in the kitchen but ours is tiny so no space, and most of our walls are brick so we rarely hang things.

Getting paperless bills for everything available and opting out of credit card offers helped. Everything I don't need gets recycled immediately, before it even comes inside. Whatever else doesn't immediately get filed or shredded goes into a wire basket that lives in the kitchen, like this one. That way it is contained and can be easily picked up and moved out of the way if needed. The rule is if the basket is full, it gets emptied and sorted into file/shred/scan/action that weekend. At that point my husband is really the culprit because he takes forever to go through his stuff. With this system he's able to have his mail clutter but it's still contained and not taking over our space.

My husband handles the filing and bill paying, so I just bought him an "inbox" to keep on his desk and all the papers go in there. Then, he usually addresses is a few times a week, mainly filing and shredding.

The problem for me, with those wall solutions, is that it needs to be near the computer or files, otherwise it just becomes a holding area and that doesn't solve the problem.

I deal with it similar to @Anya: Everything is paperless and on autopay, and junk gets recycled right away. Everything else gets banished to "The Drawer". I sort and file things once a quarter or so. Not the best method, but works for me.

We use the Pottery Barn Daily System.