Good things can happen when you open your mail!

22 October 2020

Keeping up with the snail mail is a challenge for a lot of my client. Sometimes it goes unopened for days or weeks. I had a couple of experiences this week that made me grateful that I make a habit of opening the mail every day. (For some reason, I’ve always loved opening mail, so it’s not a hardship.)

We received a routine-looking piece of mail from our health insurance company that I expected to be an Explanation of Benefits. My husband had a health incident recently that necessitated an ambulance ride and a short hospital stay. (He’s fine now.) I opened the mail from the insurance company and inside was a $528 check! It was to reimburse us for the out-of-network ambulance. I don’t fully understand it. But I’m very glad I opened it!

In the same mail delivery was an envelope from our auto insurance company, with the policy renewal. I took a look at the new rate and my eyes bugged out. The premium for my van had more than doubled. So I called the next day and got the wheels in motion to correct it. Our premium is paid automatically, so if I had not opened that mail we would have paid a much higher premium. Obviously, we would have noticed it, but it would have been a more stressful situation.

So the moral here is to take a moment and open your mail the day it arrives. You might find a check! Or a mistake that you can rectify. Bonus: If you open your mail daily and discard everything you can, your home will be tidier.

If this message resonates with you, you might be interested in purchasing my $9 Organizing Guide about handling the mail, called Love Is (Forever) Stamps—how to fall back in love with snail mail. Oh, and as an fyi, I’m having a half-off sale when you buy all eight of my organizing guides. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page linked above and click the Add to Cart button under “Want them all?”. Then enter the coupon code VOTE at checkout and you can get all eight guides for only $31.50. The coupon expires on November 3.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Tagged with: clutter, habits, mail, paper management, paper piles