For all the people that talk about how “email is the future” and how “everything is going digital”, it sure feels like you still get a lot of mail, right?

Maybe the previous tenant at your house used to get a lot of coupons sent there, maybe your bank hasn’t quite caught on to paperless billing yet, but whatever the reason, it feels like you never have an empty mailbox. And what’s worse is that it all starts to pile up after a while - the kitchen counter gets covered in dental bills, the entryway is full of phonebooks, and nobody knows what to do with anything.

So what are you supposed to do with it all, other than taking it straight to the garbage? We’ve got a few tips here to help you get your daily mail organized and ready for wherever it needs to go:

Get started in the entryway

If you’ve got an entryway, chances are this winds up being a resting place for a lot of your excess mail. A good way to start organizing mail in the home is to cut it off right at the pass and get some entryway mail organizers for your front room. Try to hang them right by the door or somewhere right in sight so you can see them and get your mail put away as fast as possible before it can clutter up the rest of the house.

From there: get sorted

After your mail has been safely stashed away, you’re going to need to figure out what’s important enough to keep and what can get tossed aside. Once a day, maybe every few days if your mail intake is slow enough, get some binders, folders, or something like a desk organizer to sort your mail by type. Bills in one stack, personal letters in the other, coupons/vouchers below that, or whatever works best for you. If you get letters or packages addressed to multiple family members, you could also consider giving everyone their own folder or cubby to promote organization.

Develop a system and prioritize

Of course, sorting the mail isn’t going to do a ton of good if you’re not actually doing anything with it. If you get bills, try to file them or stack them in order of importance or due date. Anything that requires your response needs to be addressed as needed, and anything you want to save for later (like those ever-present pizza coupons) should be kept away from the ‘active’ pile so it doesn’t get discarded by mistake.

...and try to make it a routine

Let’s face it: none of these tips are going to do a lot of good if you stop doing it after a week. Make sure your family is all aware of the new system (even if you have to have one of those awkward “family meetings” that people only ever had on TV shows in the 80s) and make sure to stick with it. After a while, you’ll barely even notice you’re using a routine until someone points out how that table in the entryway isn’t stacked up with flyers for the oil change place across the street. (And imagine how happy you’re going to be when someone finally points that out!)