Help Minimize Your Mail (and Your Paper Cuts!)

The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 100 billion pieces of bulk mail every year. How much of that winds up in your mail box and how much of that is something you never wanted in the first place? Leaving you with the task of trying to recycle or guiltily throwing away? For us, it was a lot. And it was beginning to feel like we were being penalized for charitable giving. For every donation we made to one organization, the following week, dozens more donation requests would pile up in our little box. Enough!

A few months ago, my co-worker Laura shared this great link with me: http://www.greendimes.com/. Complete the form and indicate the kind of mail you would like to receive and the kind you’d rather not and watch your paper cuts go away.

And this morning, my sister-in-law shared another great resource with me (Thanks, Amy!) https://www.catalogchoice.org/signup. You can use Catalog Choice to simplify your life and save natural resources…

And minimize your paper cuts.

There are major companies that handle the bulk of mailings for things like grocery circulars and advertisements throughout the country and allow you to opt out of their mailing lists for five years at a time. Valassis (formerly ADVO) is one of them.

And, if you really want to get serious about unwanted correspondence, www.privacyrights.org has a full page of steps on how to clear out the other bits that Catalog Choice and DMA didn’t. These require a little more intervention, sometimes a phone call, but the names and numbers are there, if you want them.

But I bet there’s something you would like to receive in the mail – a Robin Wilson Home Soy Candle! Don’t forget to add your entry to this week’s Green Giveaway!

Image: Newscom