When I traveled around the world for six months last year, one of the issues I had to deal with was my mail. Fortunately, my roommate was an angel; she opened all my mail and emailed me about anything that had to be attended to while I was on the road. However, when I returned home I still had to wade through an overflowing laundry basket full of mail, most of which turned out to be junk: catalogs, credit card offers, direct mailed coupons from my auto dealership, etc., etc. I decided something had to be done about all this junk mail. Not only is it a nuisance and a time consumer, it also is a waste of natural resources; I wonder how many trees we kill each year for all this useless advertising. Basically, I decided that if it couldn’t be emailed, I didn’t want it.

Through my efforts I discovered the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), which is the official mail preference service for the catalog and direct marketing community n the United States. Not only does DMA’s mail preference service allow you to remove your name from the mailing lists of individual organizations, it also provides an option that lets you remove your name from DMA member prospect lists. Once your name is on this list, any member of the DMA is obligated to stop sending you direct mail pieces.

I figured, what the heck, and signed up. It cost me $1, which was charged to my credit card. Since most companies that conduct mass mailing campaigns are members of DMA, the amount of junk mail I received slowly began to disappear. The site had warned that it could take up to 90 days, because many mailings are prepared well in advance, however within 60 days my junk mail virtually disappeared. These days I receive very little mail and I am a happy camper. If you reside in the U.S. and are interested in adding your name to the DMA list, click here and scroll down to item number three.

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