Stop the Madness: Get Off of Junk Mail Lists!

By Lisa Montanaro

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A large percentage of my clients face paper clutter challenges. Despite visions of a paperless society when the computer was invented, we are still inundated with paper at home and at work.

One of the biggest culprits is “junk mail” — those credit card solicitations, catalogs, circulars, and the like that you don’t want or need, but that still keep coming. Experts estimate that the average person receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year.

How to stop the madness? Here are some great resources for helping you whittle down the amount of junk mail that comes into your home or office in the first place.

• www.OptOutPrescreen.com is the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry website to accept and process requests from consumers to opt-in or opt-out of firm offers of credit or insurance.
  Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decide what gets in your mailbox. Use it to reduce your mailbox clutter, while helping save natural resources.
• www.DMAChoice.org is an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. This site is part of a larger program designed to respond to consumers’ concerns over the amount of mail they receive, and it is the evolution of the DMA’s Mail Preference Service created in 1971. For the purposes of this site, direct mail is divided into four categories: Credit Offers, Catalogs, Magazine Offers and Other Mail Offers. You can request to start or stop receiving mail from individual companies within each category—or from an entire category at once.
• www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org was started because we are continually bombarded with yellow and white pages directories at both home and office. The site is not intended to stop the use of such directories, but to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of the books. The thinking is, if you want a book, you can call and order one.
• www.41Pounds.org is a service that helps you stop 80-95% of unwanted catalogs and junk mail. Yes, it is a paid service, but the fee is reasonable and they do all of the work of contacting the mailing companies for you. 41 Pounds donates over half of its profits to environmental groups, local schools, and youth groups.
• Mail Stopper (www.mailstopper.tonic.com) is another paid service that does all of the work for you. Mail Stopper plants 5 trees on behalf of each member to further fight the environmental impact of all of the wasted paper produced by junk mail.

Take the time to contact any of the above resources to help you stop junk mail from entering your home or office. The result will be less paper to process, which means less clutter and more time for you!