AP Photo/Sam Harrel

The holidays bring a lot of paper into homes.  Catalogs, magazines, flyers, ads, and donation requests arrive daily. How can you keep track of only what you need and let go of the rest? 

1. Sort mail regularly. Some people sort mail every day, others do so weekly.  Make sure you take a few minutes to sort out the bills from the junk mail as it comes in.  Discard or recycle any catalogs, flyers or requests that you know you will not actually act on.
2. Keep all catalogs together. By keeping like items together you have access to the latest information and prices.  You can use a basket, a file folder, or a certain corner in your kitchen among other things. When you see all the catalogs together, you can decide if you have the time, desire, and energy to go through multiple catalogs from the same company or just the latest issue.     
3. Recycle or discard expired items. Most catalogs and flyers are good only for a certain amount of time. If the date has already past to get the good price, recycle the paper. 
4. Schedule 'someday' on your calendar. If you are saving the catalogs to order from someday but haven't figured out when, schedule a day and time on your calendar.  Go through the catalogs and decide whether or not you will order anything. Any catalog you have not decided to order from on 'someday' gets recycled or discarded. Schedule another 'someday' next month.
5. Decide on donation budget and charitable organizations ahead of time. Create a list of charities or causes that are meaningful to you and decide how much you are able to donate this year.  That way when the paper donation requests come in you can recycle them without (much) guilt because you've done what you are willing and able to do. If people are calling you for a good cause, you can say something like, "I've already made my charitable contributions for this year."
6. Go online.   Most information from paper catalogs and flyers is also available online.  You can use electronic resources to replace the need for paper on items that are quickly outdated.
7. "Precycle" where possible.  Stopping excess catalogs and mailings before they come into your home is a great way to reduce mail clutter, especially at the holidays. You may want to try free mail-reduction sites like DMA Choice   or CatalogChoice to help you reduce unwanted mail. Most services take a few weeks to go into effect, but over time will make a big dent in your mail load.