When I began traveling around the world in 2007, 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 DMAChoice.org, which is the official mail preference service for the Data & Marketing Association in the United States. Once your name is on this list, any member of the DMA is obligated to stop sending you direct mail pieces. The price for adding your name is $5 for 10 years. After ten years, you must sign up again. Register for the service HERE.
I figured, what the heck, and signed up. 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. A few years later, once it also became available, I added my name to the National “Do Not Mail” List, which is similar to the “Do Not Call” list. These days I receive very little mail and I am a happy camper.
There’s another great/free service called Catalog Choice (http://www.catalogchoice.org/). I used them about 2 years ago and was able to virtually eliminate all junk mail. There are days that go by now that I don’t receive any mail at all!
Ahh…if that would only work in the U.S. Sigh.
Up here, we just put a sticker on our mailbox saying the equivalent of “No junkmail”. Works like a charm 🙂
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