Whenever you retrieve the mail from your mailbox, you can receive almost anything from almost anyone.
Occasionally, a postcard from a dear friend is in the mix.
However, since social technology permits personal correspondence through digital means, things we receive in the mail have more or less a business-related nature.
These include important documents, utility bills, receipts, and promotional material.
To keep all the physical mail on track, you can use a mail organizer.
While you can purchase one for an easy fix, crafting a DIY mail organizer is a fun activity that produces something unique and more personalized.
DIY Mail Organizer Crafting Ideas
Start crafting your personalized mail organizer by doing a bit of brainstorming about things you need and want to accomplish.
These things include the number of partitions, a preferred design style, and your choice of materials.
Sorting Compartments
While different store-bought mail sorters have several compartments for categorization, it simply doesn’t work for everyone.
Most of their designs do not offer much versatility for a sorting challenge.
That said, the following is a list of divisions or compartments we think a mail sorter can use.
Your DIY mail organizer doesn’t need to have all of these partitions, and you can combine only the ones you need.
Sorting Pool
The sorting partition is where you drop all the mail once you get it from the mailbox.
This partition comes in handy when you collect the mail on a busy day and haven’t found the time to sort it just yet.
If you make it a habit to sort your mail as soon as you take it out of the mailbox, you won’t be needing this partition.
Personal Letters
Here is where you drop postcards, occasional greetings, and holiday cheers from relatives and friends.
You can further divide this partition into sections for each household member.
Important Documents
This partition can hold government notices, legal documents, workplace documents, and similar items.
Bills
All your utility bills, credit card bills, mortgage accounts go into this section.
Receipts
Unless important receipts can go into the filing pool for future reference, they should remain in this section.
If you have receipts that you need to show as proof of payment to complete an ongoing transaction, you can keep them here.
Vouchers and Coupons
The vouchers and coupons section is where you keep and grab promotional materials that you can use for shopping.
Magazines and Catalogs
The magazine and catalog section can hold unopened items you receive from subscriptions into monthly publications.
Filing Pool
If you want to file items at a later date, you can put them in a filing section on your mail sorter.
Outbound Mail
Everything that needs to go out goes into this partition, at least until you post them.
Tools for the Mail
You can easily open and organize your mail if you have the essentials.
Essential tools include a letter opener, paper clips, scissors, a stapler, and a staple wire remover.
Types of Mail Organizers
Once you’ve decided what partitions you need for your mail sorter, you will also need to choose a design style for it.
The three types of mail organizers vary depending on where you mount or locate them, whether they use heavy or lightweight materials.
Wall-Hung or Door-Hung Mail Organizers
Some people like to see their mail before they walk out of the house, while others prefer putting them in an obvious spot.
In that case, a wall-hung or door-hung panel with slots or pockets is the best way to go.
Desktop Mail Organizers
On the other hand, others like going through their mail while sitting in front of their desks.
Desktop organizers take up desk space, but they ensure that you don’t miss a thing already laid out in front of you.
Freestanding Mail Organizers
A freestanding mail organizer is a quick fix for those who do not have much desk space.
However, a good freestanding mail sorter should have its lowest pockets at a convenient reaching height.
Since we’re talking about a DIY project, your freestanding mail organizer can have bottom shelves for holding other heavier items.
Materials for Crafting Mail Organizers
Depending on your choice of materials, your mail organizer project can be easy but simple or complicated but extraordinary.
Aside from your choice of materials, the tools available to you should also dictate the design of your mail organizer.
Here is a list of materials that you can use, and you can source all of them from recycled objects.
Wood
When working with plywood sheets and wood planks, you might need a jigsaw or a simple saw and a hammer.
If you have a pneumatic finish nailer, all the better. You will also need sandpaper, assorted wire nails, wood glue, and wood stain or paint for decoration.
Wood is a very versatile material, and you can work it into any of the design styles presented above.
Metal
For crafting a mail organizer using metals, your easiest and most economical approach is to recycle.
Use scraps of metal sheets, welded wire mesh, a hole puncher, and tie wires or zip ties.
You can use a rubber mallet to form the metals and a stick welder to combine the components.
If you’re not into welding, you can resort to poking holes into the metal sheets and attaching the wire mesh trays with zip ties.
Cardboards
Unlike the complicated tasks of working wood and metals, crafting with cardboard is much more effortless.
It is like doing a primary school project using scissors and PVA glue.
Furthermore, it is even much easier to trim cardboards to precise measurements with the help of a pencil, a straight edge, and a cutter.
Since a cardboard mail sorter will not look as good as fabricated wood or metal, you might want to cover it up with wrapping paper.
Fabrics
The disadvantage of fabrics over wood, metal, and cardboard is that it can be difficult to form a freestanding desk organizer.
You will need to combine it with cardboard and use it as a wrapping material instead.
When using fabrics with cardboard, form the cardboard base and use a hot glue gun and refill glue sticks to attach the fabric.
Nevertheless, you can craft a wall-hung mail organizer using just fabric, a piece of string or rope, and a basic sewing kit.
Mix and Match Your Materials
While each of these materials has its properties, you can mix them up a bit to build your DIY mail sorter.
As long as you have the right tools for handling each material, you can never go wrong.
For example, you can use plywood or metal sheet as the main panel to hold cardboard or fabric partitions or pockets.
You can also use other recycled materials such as plastic containers to serve as sorting compartments.