Did you know that 17.8 tons of bulk mail is delivered annually? If you read my recent post “Managing the Mountain of Mail (Or Whatever Burdens You), you might appreciate this one from my guest today, Janice Ash. It offers some very concrete tips and steps you can take to reduce the volume of mail that comes to your home, while helping the environment at the same time.
My suggestion to you as you read the information below: Notice the thoughts and feelings that arise. Be aware of the mind’s tendency to spin more anger, despair, and fear-thoughts like “the world is out to get me.” The fears themselves, like the mail, are a form of clutter and junk too!
Thank you, Janice, for helping us lighten our load by shedding light – one catalogue at a time!
Junk mail is not only annoying, it’s costly. 17.8 tons of bulk mail is delivered annually, half of which isn’t opened. Junk mail received yearly by the average family is equal to 1-1/2 trees. 100 million trees a year are sacrificed to entice you to buy things you have no use for. $370 million a year is spent to dispose of unrecycled junk mail. On average we spend 8 months of our lifetime opening junk mail. Recycling is great but it has an enormous environmental cost. Here are some ways you can reduce the amount you receive:
- optoutprescreen.com (1-888-567-8688) eliminates pre-approved credit card, mortgage and insurance offers.
- dmachoice.org – eliminates 75% of unsolicited commercial mail for 5 years.
- pch@ant.net – stops Publisher’s Clearing House mailings.
- Proquo.com – provides various sites for name removal.
- Cataloguechoice.org – removes your name from catalogue mailings for free and is now offering a fee based unlisting service, removing your name from marketing databases. Privatecitizen.com also a pay site does the same as does stopthejunkmail.com and 41pounds.org.
- donotcall.gov – reduces telemarketing calls, which are auditory junk mail.
When subscribing to magazines or beginning a new relationship with a company, request that your information not be sold or rented. To reveal who is selling your name, use a different middle initial for each subscription or order. When the flood of new mail begins you’ll know the source.
If a child is being mailed credit card and insurance offers, look into identity theft.
Contact credit sites Experian.com, TransUnion.com, and Equifax.com requesting that no personal information be shared for promotional purposes.
Warranty cards are used to gather marketing information. Weigh the value before automatically submitting them.
–Janice Ash has been helping people declutter their homes for 20 years. You can learn more about her practice based in the Cincinnati, Ohio area by visiting her Web site at I-Declutter.com.
p.s. If you have any useful links – or tips – to add to those mentioned above, feel free to share them in the comment box below. Happy clearing!
Photo: Google Images/Junk Mail
Here are some great tips for reducing email clutter from Josh Moore [via Victoria Butler on Linkedin]…
-Respond less. the more emails you reply to, the more you will receive.
-Keep it short. -Turn off all social network email updates.
-Check your mobile first, or turn off mobile email sync.