When it comes to organization, one area of the home that many people forget is their mail. Yet, mail clutter often makes up a big portion of a mess in cluttered homes, and learning how to organize mail with a mail sorter tutorial is a great way to get a cluttered home under control in a hurry. Furthermore, mail tends to be the most time-sensitive pieces of clutter and one of the things that is most important to keep track of in a home. Organizing your mail is important.
I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the DIY shutter mail sorter tutorials that were going around Pinterest a while back. I absolutely LOVE the look of them and how functional they are, so I set out to make my own. And lucky for you, today I’m going to show you how to organize mail with your very own DIY Shutter Mail Sorter too!
DIY Shutter Mail Sorter Materials
- Shutter
- Thin board (cut to the same size as your shutter) or Large piece of Cardboard
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Paint
- Paintbrush (if you don’t use spray paint)
- Pretty Paper
- Very thin glue
- Very strong glue
DIY Shutter Mail Sorter Instructions
1. If you are using cardboard for the backing: Lay the shutter down on the cardboard and trace around it with a pencil. Cut out the piece of cardboard so it is the same size as the shutter.
2. If you are using a found or reclaimed shutter and it’s not the color you want, clean it up and paint it. You will probably need a few coats of paint.
3. While your paint is drying, decide which side of the board or cardboard will peak through the slats of the shutter. Paint this side or line it with paper since it will be visible once the entire project is assembled. Use the very thin glue so that your paper doesn’t bubble up.
4. Once your paint and glue are dry, use the very strong glue to carefully glue the board or cardboard to the back of the shutter. Lay it down flat and place something heavy on it while it dries to keep everything in place.
5. Once everything has dried, stand it up and put your mail in it! It’s ready to go!
Optional: If you want to make your mail sorter especially pretty, you could even paint or stencil a design in the large space across the top. I chose not to, since this space on my shutter is frequently covered by mail anyway.
This DIY Shutter Mail Sorter isn’t just a great way to store and organize your mail–you can use it for a number of different papers you want to keep track of!
- Bills
- Coupons
- Take-out Menus
- Permission Slips
- Birthday and Holiday Cards
- Receipts
- Anything else you need to keep track of!
Note: Do be careful not to put very small slips of paper in your mail sorter, as they will slip right through and get caught in the bottom. The better you glue your mail sorter and the more mail it has it in, the tighter the hold will be.