Save Trees & Time:  5 Tips to Stop Junk Mail! - at your fingertips organizing

Are you overwhelmed by paper junk mail and want to make it stop?  If so, you’re not alone. Junk mail is a huge waste of our natural resources.

Earlier this year, Worcester Envelope Company shared some fascinating junk mail statistics:

• More than 2.6 million trees are sacrificed each year in order to produce junk mail
• As much as 50% of unsolicited mail ends up in our landfills
• The average U. S. household gets 6 pieces of junk mail every day, 3 of which are immediately thrown out. ​

​Junk mail isn’t good for anyone.  In addition to the startling stats above, it’s also a huge time-waster.  How many of you simply stack your incoming daily mail in a pile to go through “later”. (Not a habit I recommend but that’s a topic for a future post!).  Perhaps you end up going through that pile several times dealing only with the urgent bills/mail as necessary and leaving the rest behind?  The result forces you to go through that pile time and time again until you finally take action with every piece of mail… if you ever do!  The time has finally come to put an end to junk mail so it never makes it into your mailbox in the first place.  Below are some great tips found on usa.gov:

• Tell companies you do business with to remove your name from customer lists they rent or sell to other companies. Look for information on how to opt-out of marketing lists on sales materials, order forms,  emails, and websites.
• Contact the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) to sign up for their mail preference service. This will allow you to remove your name from most national telemarketing, mail, and email lists. You can register online for $2 or by sending the DMA registration form and $3 fee through postal mail.
• The Consumer Credit Reporting Industry’s Opt-Out Program lets you stop receiving credit card and insurance offers. All major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion) participate in this program. Register online or call 1-888-567-8688 to opt-out of receiving these offers for five years. You must register online if you want to opt-out out of these offers permanently. 
• Complete and file a PS Form 1500 (PDF, Download Adobe Reader) at your local Post Office to prevent, or stop, receiving sexually oriented advertising in your mail.

There’s also another popular option called Catalog Choice.  They are passionate about helping protect natural resources and helping people simplify their lives.  Use their service to cancel specific catalogs and other types of paper mail you no longer wish to receive. In fact, they recommend that users also sign up for DMA choice in tandem with their service to take their name off of prospecting lists because many catalog merchants share lists of personal information with other merchants. And best of all? Catalog Choice service is free!

I hope you take a few minutes to take action on some of these suggestions.  By doing so, you’ll save time on the other end by not having junk mail to review and act on down the road.

“Imagine never having to sort through stacks of mail again… What would you do with your extra time?”  ~ Author Unknown ~

Brenda Tringali,  HR, Organizing & Productivity Specialist
At YourFingertips Organizing (www.AtYourFingertipsOrganizing.com)
 Serving MA, NH, or “virtually” anywhere (via phone/video)
​603.490.6062