Your home office or the table by your front door can go from a nice and tidy space to a cluttered mess with one quick trip to the mailbox. With the included advertisement sheets and the detailed billing statements with each envelope, it’s easy for bill clutter to stack up.
However, there are a few simple tips to reducing bill clutter and making life a little less simple when it comes to keeping up with your bills.
It’s important to keep the newest statement of each bill that comes in. This can give you an accurate idea of what new charges are, what payments have been received and how much interest is being accrued.
A small file folder containing these records can be neatly tucked away in a drawer or you can scan the latest statements to be saved in a file on your computer. This can help from having a multitude of statements from the same creditor stacking up to add to your clutter.
Purchase a quality shredder to dispose of all banking and billing information. Since you only need the most recent statement, older statements should be shredded instead of crumpled and thrown out. This will help get rid of clutter and it will protect against identity theft if anyone’s combing through your garbage.
Many companies offer discounts and incentives for paperless statements. This will send an alert to your email to notify you of the due dates and let you view your statements online. This will allow you to see previous statements, give you a decrease in your payments and will clear out the majority of bill clutter you usually have.
Online banking is a great way to stay organized and save time and money when paying your bills. You can set up direct withdrawals from your banking account straight to your creditors or you can write online checks. Many banks offer free online banking and companies offer discounts for setting up direct withdrawals for billing.
Setting up direct payments for your bills through your bank account or through online viewable statements is a great way to get rid of your bill clutter. It also saves you piece of mind when it comes close to the due date and you’re running around looking for stamps and envelopes.
This new age of technology has opened the door to a world of new conveniences when it comes to the same old tasks of bill paying. Taking advantage of these new conveniences can help free up the clutter in your home and in your mind.