Hippie Method:Junkin' it With BHG

*just in case you didn't put two and two together, BHG means Barefoot Hippie Girl.=)

On Monday I wrote a post about sorting your blog subscriptions. Which was actually kind of popular. Which surprised me. Because I am the last person to ask for advice about techy stuff.

Today I am tackling the topic of junk mail-both virtual and paper.

When we got home from our month long trip, I had a 12" stack of mail waiting for me. That is a bit daunting.

The week we were on Java and unconnected to the internet, I reentered civilization, and found over 400 emails waiting for my attention.

Talk about overwhelming.

On any given day I wake up to 40-50 emails in my inbox. Throughout the day, I deal with at least that many more.

And thus it is no surprise to me when others talk about their over flowing email box. Or about counters running over with real live junk mail.

So what do you do? What did I do to tackle a months worth of mail? What did I do to tackle a week's worth of unopened and unread emails?

I sorted. Following my same basic blog subscription reading formula. Purge. Read Now. Read Later-if I have time.

Seriously, I have a cut throat mail sorting policy.

I have realized that my piles don't lessen by ignoring them. They just grow, and spread. And cause guilt and annoyance.

When I looked at the pile of mail, I determined I was not going to read all of it. I should have taken pictures to show you the vastness of this task. But, here's what I did. And, actually, this is what I do every day when I get the mail out of the box.

I purged. I started at the top of the pile and immediately made one pile for consideration and one pile for trash.

Into the trash went the weekly coupon circulars, everything from utility providers that is not a bill but sales, book catalogs, mass mailings, everything. If it was generic like "to the resident" it went in the garbage pile. No second thoughts. As a side note, it is a great idea to shred any credit card or sales letters. This helps to protect from identity theft.

a random day of random junk mail. Anything like this was gone.

This reduced my pile to about 4 inches. This is the stuff I have to open and read to make sure I am not tossing anything important.

I separated this stack into:

Bills for us can be personal or for our roofing business. And roofing bills can be notes of purchase or the actual invoice. So, I separate into basically 2 sub-categories here. Bills and notes of purchase. I can immediately file the notes of purchase. I place bills into my bill holder, knowing I will get back to them in the next week to pay what needs paid as it comes due.

Personal letters. These are so few and far between, but Christmas cards, etc, would also fit into this category. Depending what the letter is, I will keep it for Mr. Hippie to read also or place it with my Bible to respond to. Or both. I read thank you notes, and read them to my family, and then I generally get rid of them. It may seem heartless, but I usually don't hang on to them for very long.

Announcements. As I am separating into categories, announcements get their own pile. I then go through the pile and write the vital information on the calendar or in my notebook. And then, (say it with me...) it goes in the trash.

Magazines and catalogues.  Each gets delivered to its intended recipients. If I have the desire, I will flip through a catalogue in my spare time. If not, I get rid of it. It saves me coveting things I really don't need. I save my magazines for a while, but with several monthly subscriptions they can get rather abundant. So, I tend to read them, keep the ones jam packed with ideas that I like, and then pass on the goodness to someone else. With the kids' magazines, if they start to fall apart, they get
tossed.

One great solution to dealing with the junk mail problem before it even starts, is to put yourself on opt out lists. In this link here, there are multiple links to opt out of junk mail, credit card and telemarketing calls, and commercial emails. It is ecologically responsible and it reduces your stack to sort through. (this green opposed Barefoot Hippie Girl just pushed a green option...You'd better watch out. It's a slippery slope.)

my bill holder, holding my bills to pay

My strategy for dealing with the over 400 accumulated emails while on Java, or the 40-50 emails I daily wake up to, is very similar to my strategy for dealing with junk mail.

I scan my inbox, immediately deleting all sales emails from stores and such. I don't shop very much. If for some reason I find that I am going to Kohls, etc. I can always search my trash for the newest coupon. The other, more long term option, is to unsubscribe from the  mailing. Often you signed up for a coupon, but now you just find your inbox inundated. Unsubscribe. You can always re-up for a bonus coupon or something. Devious, (and I have not actually done it), but it gets the job done.

My email sorting strategy then takes a slightly different turn from my junk mail strategy. If I really want to read something, I leave it unread. It is a reminder to me that I haven't gotten to it, and that I need to. This includes blog posts that I want to read, and personal emails.

Not as important emails I actually scan immediately, note what I need to, and then delete it.

And that is also the thing about my inbox, I have less than 200 saved messages in my inbox. Messages that I have read and kept. Most are love notes from Mr. Hippie, some are recipes or humorous links. Some are race notifications. Some are letters from friends and missionaries that contain prayer requests. That is about all I hold onto.

My inbox is very fluid. I will keep a someone else's blog post in my inbox until I read it. If I have read it, and it is still there, it is because there is some action I am still planning to take with it. Maybe I plan to link up, or write a comment, or share it. But, generally, I read a blog post and then I delete it. Because I can always go to the site and re-read it there, if I so desire.

So, this is the Hippie Method for sorting mail. It works pretty good. Though it isn't flawless. I could tell you about sorting through my garbage yesterday to find the check I inadvertently threw away.

Sigh...

But, for the most part, my non-saving personality stands me in good stead as far as mail and email go.

I titled this Crazy March Winter. It's two days before spring is suppose to be sprung, and we have 5-6" of fresh snow.

What strategies do you have for keeping your email and snail mail from virtually and literally piling up? Share with all of us in the comments.

How to Sort Your Blog Reader

There has been much buzz the past week about Google closing its Google Reader on July 1. All I have to say is, "never fear my faithful readers." I really am not understanding how this is going to affect GFC, but I do have 4 other following options for you. Just in case you don't want to miss a single BHG post!!! (that needs to be read in a super excited voice.=))

Take a look over at the top of my side bar. The first 2 items are
#1-Follow Barefoot Hippie Girl. See that BL, that is the 5th icon in the strip? It stands for Blog Lovin' which is a blog reader. You can click on that, and subscribe to my blog posts that way. Everyday or so, you will get an email from BL, with all the new blog posts from the blogs you follow.

#2-subscribe by email. The great thing about my email service is that it is NOT google's feed burner. So, even if they decide to make that go belly up, you will still get my posts via email. I use Feed Blitz. You can enter your email address, and voila', posts sent directly to your inbox. Every day!

Two other ways you can follow me are...
#1-if you follow me on FB, I will always share my posts over there, at least once a day. Nothing changes for those of you who just click over from there.

#2-google plus. If you add me on Google+, I will add you back. Which also means that you will get an email everyday with my latest post...

And since I have now just talked about 3 ways you can follow me by getting an email (or 3) a day, I want to talk sorting.

The fact of the matter is, I probably follow 50 blogs on a regular basis-via bloglovin', GFC, and email. I don't have time to read 50 blogs a day. That's practically a novel or a collection of short stories. And, I have my own blog to write, plus life to live. Sorry kids, there won't be dinner tonight, I had blogs to read...

Meres is a sorter. This is her potato categories.

So, I sort. There is basically 3 categories I am going to work with-purge, read now, read later-if I have time.

Purge: Are there blogs you follow that you never read? Get rid of them. No guilt.

Maybe you subscribed to a blog to fulfill the terms of a giveaway. Maybe you subscribed to a blog because you liked a post they wrote-but then something seemed to change. Maybe you found out they weren't really your style. Maybe someone has changed-you or them-and the blog isn't relevant to you anymore.

And also purge duplicates. My BFF was getting my blog posts every day via Google+, my old email RSS feed, and my new RSS email feed. Even for a BFF, daily triplicates of her bff's musings was a bit much. She unsubscribed from one or 2 of them. And I wasn't offended.

Read Now: some blogs you read because of friendship, or because your are in the same online community or forum, or because you absolutely love the content. These blogs you read every day. You read every post. You never miss one.

Well you should sort a group for these blogs. In most blog readers, there is the option of sorting your blog subscriptions into groups. You can have as many groups as you want. Personally, I have two. Read now, and read later-if I have time.

By read now I mean, read the day it is published. Not the minute it shows up in my inbox or reader feed. But some time that day.

Even with our favorite blogs and bloggers, there are some types of posts we enjoy reading, and some we don't. I almost never read a dyi or craft post. They really aren't my thing. If I have a project I want to do, I will google it. I do like to see house project posts. Painting, foyers, kitchens. But they aren't top priority for my reading.

Read Later-if I have time: Those dyi, craft and even some recipe posts, all go into my read later category. Some of my favorite bloggers only have a post or two a week that I read. So, their blogs as a whole, tend to be in the read later category.

You can sort your blog subscriptions in to these 2 categories or it can be a post by post action. Whatever works best for you. This subject doesn't really apply to me today. I'm going to give this particular post a pass. For instance, one of my friends hosts a link up for single/kid-free bloggers. Since I'm neither single nor kid-free, I give that weekly post a pass. But I read all the other posts this friend publishes.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by your blog subscriptions and are about ready to throw in the towel on it all, I hope you will give this sorting a try. You may find it rather liberating and exhilarating.

Life is too short to spend it reading blogs you don't like. Life is too short to spend all your reading time on blogs and never cracking open a book. Life is to short to miss the heartfelt posts that really speak to your soul.

source

How many blogs do you read? How do you keep your reading list to a manageable roar?

Btw, on Wednesday we are going to talk junk. Junk mail. I'm going to talk paper and virtual junk mail on Wednesday. And, let me just say that I hope you don't categorize Barefoot Hippie Girl as junk mail. But if, for some reason, you are signed up in more than one way to receive my posts, I would call the more than one way "junk".

Less IS More

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It may perhaps be the end of the beginning. Winston Churchill 1942


I have not yet begun to fight. John Paul Jones, 18th century

the "as organized as its going to get" closet

the "beautifully organized closet"

Well, after spending many hours sorting and organizing in the basement today, I feel these are apt sentiments. I have one very beautifully organized closet, and one that is as organized as it is going to get while we have so many books. Brian generously gave up about 2 dozen books. That did help. Brian's slow time project, after the siding, is book shelves. I also sorted through my girl's clothes bins, getting rid of non-sentimental surplus articles. I have way more clothing than one girl could possibly wear in any one size. Though now the amount is significantly decreased. Tomorrow I will hopefully tackle the girls' dresser and closet. It all depends on Meredith's naps, but I think we could get through that. I sent Brian on a Goodwill run, and I am ramping up for another. The laundry room is still overflowing, but perhaps....












I told the boys that they had to put together a 300 piece puzzle before they could play anymore Wii or watch anymore movies. Guess who spent over an hour this evening putting together 75% of a 300 piece puzzle? And guess who else actually hates (greatly dislikes) putting together puzzles? It ranks right up there with cutting. I hate cutting because I had to do it every single day in kindergarten. Every single day! Whose idea was that anyway? I did enough cutting during that school year to last me my entire life. And if that wasn't enough to fill my quota, the 2 years I spent on the CWC "name tag" committee finished me off. I don't pick up scissors if I can possibly help it. So, Brian is finishing off the puzzle with the boys. I think it should be done within the hour.

the newly organized office area

And I am sure this quote ranks up there with Churchill and Jones...
Just keep swimming. Dory

Out with the Old-In with the New!

Happy New Year, everyone! 2012! Another year full of possibilities, and dire predictions-if you are into that stuff. Me, personally, well, I believe that the world will end when it ends, and I am not going to worry about it. And it probably won't be this year, because God says we don't know the day or the hour. And since 2012 has been so hyped, there's a pretty good chance that it will just carry on like normal.
Btw, my first blog of a new year. Now isn't that cool?=) Everything else has been archived to 2011, and this one is 2012. And, I know, it is church time, so why am I blogging? We decided it would be better for everyone if we kept our germs at home. Thank you very much. I really whooped it up last night. In bed by 9:00, definitely sleeping before any ball dropped. But today I feel much better. Not 100%, but probably about 85%.

The are many "cleaning" images, but this one
best sums up this time of year cleaning.=)

The turning of a new year, switching out of the calendars always gives me an itch. The "cleaning and purging like a mad woman" itch. It is sorting time and filling the trash can time, and trying to find room for all the Christmas loot. It is time for filling bags for Goodwill, and cleaning the house really good. It is getting back to the minimalist approach after the holiday clutter and chaos. As I sit here, my tree is still up. I just never got around to it this week. Having 2/3 of the family get the flu the past couple days didn't help with that game plan. There are all the decorations still up. Most will get packed away into their boxes, but some are going to the trash. Like the string of lights on the banister that gave up the ghost rather early this season. Instead of glowing softly they have been black since mid-December. After everything comes down, we will vacuum and dust really well. And it will practically be a whole new room. Then I look at Brian Marcus who almost has enough hair to donate to Locks of Love. Okay, not really, but he so needs a haircut. Definitely a today or tomorrow project. And the girls' room needs some work. Their room is rather small, and they have limited and overflowing drawers. I have got to figure out something different. Plus, Meredith has outgrown her 3-6 month one piece outfits, so they can be packed away. Which will give me more space. But which also leads to the task of sorting out bins in the basement. And I look at the basement and think, "if we ever had to move...."=) Actually, that is not a smiley thought. Its a horrifying one. We have moved twice in our marriage, and each time our stuff just multiplies. What is with that? And now we have a garage and shed to deal with too. I think we better just plan on staying here forever. And how about the unruly mess on the fridge. Pictures and such have pilled up for the past year. Now it is time to update everything with new ones we received this season. Neaten it all up.So this week is my week of organizing. We have one more week off school, and it is going to be productive. No more vacation for mom.  And get rid of things we haven't used forever, or have outgrown, or that have excessive holes....Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. You'd better just watch out!

The question is...where to start?=)