Do you keep envelopes?

[mountainsoft]

When I get mail or a greeting card from someone, the first thing I do is take it out of the envelope and toss the envelope in the recycling bin. It's an immediate reduction in clutter. Same goes with any of those sheets describing your rights in multiple languages, advertisements, or anything other than the primary documents. Heck, I don't even bring most junk mail in the house. It goes straight from the mailbox to the recycling cart.

In comparison, my wife goes through every piece of mail, and keeps the envelopes with every card she receives.

My mom used to pay bills and write the check number and payment date on the outside of the envelope. So she had this huge stack of statements in envelopes.

Thankfully, most mail these days is electronic so we get minimal physical mail anymore. Still, I've never understood why anyone would want to keep the envelopes. I do my best to minimize paperwork in the house.

 

[GrayHare]

I toss a bill's envelope upon payment. That creates an easy visual clue for me. Anything still in an envelope needs to be attended to, whereas if there's no envelope, my task has been finished.

 

[pacergal]

Recycle or shred

 

[EastWest Gal]

We write the date paid on the bill. Pay the bills online. Envelopes go in the recylcing bin.

 

[GenXguy]

I throw away the envelope eventually but not always immediately.

 

[erkevin]

Wait, you guys get paper bills? Like in the mail?

 

[GrayHare]

Wait, you guys get paper bills? Like in the mail?

Yes, it's nice the sender supplies documentation so I don't have print it myself. Many of the remaining paper bills have tax consequences, like medical. Paper lets me easily document it so I don't need to try to find it on some old device or web site 10 years from now when I want to do an HSA reimbursement, etc.

 

[AudiDudi]

Almost all of ours come in email. I schedule them for online payment on the day I get the email. I try to have most things bill the credit card and then I pay the CC in full when due.

 

[Gumby]

We have all our bills on electronic autopay now, but we still do get a lot of junk mail every day. If there is not printing all over the envelope, I throw out the contents and use the envelope to write out my grocery list.

 

[Dtail]

Recycle or shred

Same.

 

[Aerides]

Wait, you guys get paper bills? Like in the mail?

Medical stuff. Every doctor's office seems to like to send paper bills.

 

[braumeister]

When my mom died, I found a couple of drawers filled with envelopes. Pretty much every statement she had received from everywhere for the past ten years or so, every single one in its original envelope and she had written"Important papers" on the back of the envelope.

They all went into the shredder.

 

[Major Tom]

I keep envelopes so I can use the back of them for notes, shopping lists, to do lists, etc.

 

[OldShooter]

Where I get the rare paper bill I almost immediately schedule the payment with Schwab Bill Pay and then toss the whole thing. I set the pay date a couple of days before the bill's due date.

I use Google Keep for most notes that I'd otherwise write on paper.

 

[scrabbler1]

I keep envelopes so I can use the back of them for notes, shopping lists, to do lists, etc.

Same here. I have other sources for junk scrap paper, but envelopes are the best reliable source.

 

[GenXguy]

Wait, you guys get paper bills? Like in the mail?

The OP starts with saying "greeting card" in the first sentence, so this isn't just about bills. But that said, some of my bills come via mail with no alternative.

 

[rk911]

Junk mail goes into a shredder, not recycle bin here. My wife likes to try and hold onto envelopes containing cards but I'm usually a bit faster.

 

[grasshopper]

I shred any mail with our physical address, but not our PO box in New Mexico. Our county gave up recycling years ago, it was too expensive to sort and transport.

 

[rodi]

Il take It a step further. I recycle the greeting cards after I've acknowledged it. I'm the least sentimental person around.

As for bills I might need a record of, I save a PDF. Then shred.

 

[MarieIG]

It depends. My granddaughter sent me a letter with drawings, decorations, and little messages on the envelope. I'll let you guess whether I kept that or not.

 

[dingo]

I toss generic junk mail in the recycling bin and the paid bills etc go into a separate stack. I will add those to the burn pile when I am clearing downed limbs and brush.

 

[Beldar]

The junk mail pre-paid envelopes get stuffed with each others pamphlets and back in the mail. They never take the hint though.

_B

 

[tulak]

Shred or recycle. I’ll keep very few things for sentimental value, but otherwise gone.

All statements are digitized.

 

[audreyh1]

I only keep envelopes from cards from family/friends. Not business communications those get recycled immediately. I’ve worked very hard to get business mail down to almost none conducting such business online instead, and cards are infrequent.

 

[rk911]

Wait, you guys get paper bills? Like in the mail?

We get some in the mail. One from my long-term insurance carrier who also requires premium payments via paper check. My wife is not computer literate so all of the bills will eventually have to bw switched to paper.