26. Stop the Junk Mail

Americans receive close to two million tons of junk mail every year, half of which is never opened or read. For the half that is read, we spend an average of three or four days a year just opening it. One can only guess at the amount of time we spend each year reading unsolicited catalogs full of items we have no use for. What a waste. And what an annoyance. Especially if you are anything like a good friend of mine who feels guilty every time she receives a charitable fund-raising solicitation she doesn’t respond to.

In addition to the personal nuisance junk mail creates, it also makes tremendous demands on our environment. If we stopped the unwanted junk mail we receive, we could save close to one hundred million trees every year.

Fortunately, there is something we can do to reduce the amount of junk mail that litters our mailbox each day.

First, write to Stop The Mail, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY, 11735-9008. Request that your name and all variations of your name not be sold to mailing list companies. This will reduce your junk mail by up to 75 percent.

Second, whenever you request a catalog, ask that your name not be added to the mailing list. Or, if you want to receive that company’s catalog but no others, request they not sell your name. Most legitimate companies will honor such a request.

Third, until you get your name removed from the mailing lists you don’t want to be on, at the very least you can sort your mail over a recycling bin. Learn to be ruthless here. Rather than having to throw it out later, when the clutter has gotten out of hand, avoid the clutter process in the first place, and throw it out now. Better yet, write “Remove this name from your list” on the mailer, stuff the entire contents into their postage-paid envelope, and send it back. Not only does this help get your name off the list, it means you don’t have to recycle it. If direct mailers received tons of their unsolicited mailings back on their doorsteps, they might be forced to come up with a less environmentally damaging method of acquiring buyers.

If you could cut by even 50 percent the amount of mail you have to handle each day, wouldn’t that simplify your life?