Organizing Challenge: Automatic Bill Payment & Electronic Bills

Sorry the challenge is late for today!  It's been a busy week and I sort of fell asleep before I got around to writing this .  Let's just say my organizing and cleaning skills have been put to the test this week! 

My significant other is currently on deployment so I had to move all of his stuff to our new place on my own.  Pro tip:  When you pack your storage unit do it in the reverse of how you'd want to take the stuff out.  I brought home all the boxes and little things first just to get to the furniture at the bottom and then had to shuffle around mounds of stuff so I could get the furniture in place. 

In the midst of all the chaos I got two emails on my phone: An electronic statement for my power bill and an email saying I'd automagically paid it.  I have everything I possibly can set up on auto pay for just this reason. Sometimes life is busy and I probably would've forgotten to pay the bill on time and then got slapped with a fee.  I also love the electronic statements because they don't take up any extra physical space and it's less stuff in the mail.

Here's the challenge for this week: Proactively reduce clutter and make your life easier by signing up for automatic payments and electronic bills.  Spend ten minutes and go through all of the bills you normally receive.  Look for their website and, if you haven't already, create an account.  Look for an option for "paperless billing" and also for paying your bills automatically.  Viola!  Never have to worry about whether you remembered to pay that bill on time again.  It will also save you money on checks and stamps.

You do still need to check the statements you receive electronically each month.  I'm a bit paranoid and I don't do automatic payments on my credit cards as I like to check all the charges before they're paid, but I've never had a problem.

Organizing Challenge: Your virtual inbox

I have something like 7 email addresses.  I have two that I actively use and a bunch of random ones that I either had no choice about having (such as my student email address) or set up for the express purpose of collecting junk mail, like the one I created for use when applying for scholarships.  I'm the kind of person who prefers to communicate via email so I end up with quite a number of random things in my inbox.  About every two weeks I like to go through and clean out the flotsam that has collected in there.

Today's challenge is to clean up and consolidate your email inboxes.

• If you have email addresses you no longer use, cancel them.  
• If you receive automatic emails that you never look at, open one up and look toward the bottom for the unsubscribe link so that you'll no longer receive them.
• Create sub folders for various emails that you keep, for example I have one for all things related to college, another for correspondences about my current job search, another for emails that are personal that I want to keep for sentimental reason, and additional folders for information about bills or accounts I keep.
• Lastly, take the time to set up message rules to automatically sort your email.  If you don't know how to do this, do an internet search for your particular mail program.