Getting organized- starting with mail

Here's the situation. It's a new year and I vowed to become a little more organized this year. What am I thinking? This requires work - sorting, purging, finding storage solutions on a budget- which can be tricky.
Now, don't get me wrong, the dollar store has tons of great plastic bins for $1 and Marc's has cheap storage solutions too but I don't like plastic everything-especially when it will be on display. I know I can paint it, decorate it whatever, but sometimes I just figure if it's not what I truly love, I don't want to waste the money no matter how cheap.

 What I have the most difficulty with is mail. It ends up in about 7 different rooms (okay, that's quite an exaggeration, but not too far off). Yes, I can be that disorganized with paper. I hate it, yet my whole life revolves around it.

Now, I know I can make things easy and just do everything online like most people nowadays do, but I like to keep people employed in the post office. I do bills 50/50. Some online and some via mail. Those things like doctor bills, those are mail. Seeing as to how we are always at the doctor, I get them regularly. So, back to what this post is really about- storing mail in a nice convenient spot altogether- not all over.  I can't believe I just confessed how terribly disorganized I can be! Yes, I'm human.

For a few months I've been trying to find a nice mail holder that fits my taste and isn't outrageously priced. I had a great one that had cute glass panels and such, but it fell off the plaster walls and shattered. Boo.

Seeing as to how bins for organizing can be expensive, I decided to come up with something on my own. I'm sure I've seen something similar on the web somewhere, but where and when I couldn't tell you. Those were the pre-Pinterest days.

Here's what I made to solve the lost/scattered mail problem in our house:

How did I do it? I'll share on Thursday!

By the way, I've been using it for a week and what a difference. I'm sure 99% of you reading this are far more organized and do not need this post, but think of what else you could use it for- papers to return to school or an outgoing bin or holding all those magnets your toddler likes to get out and play with on the fridge only to see them end up on the floor and throughout the house... oh, that's not you? hmm... What are we doing wrong??  Lots of things to do and it's totally cheap, cheap, cheap!