Reduce Your Mail
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How is it that no matter how much junk mail you throw out, there will somehow still be piles of junk mail around? It’s like the laws of physics don’t apply to credit card offers and desperate real estate agents. So your challenge today is to reduce the mail you get.
Reducing unwanted mail will mean preventing waste, saving yourself time dealing with it, and saving yourself money on all of the things you didn’t know you wanted before a pretty catalog dropped through your mail slot. Here’s how to get started!
The Great Reduce Your Mail Challenge
Opt out of junk mail via DMA Choice. This will only stop mail from companies you haven’t done business with...but that’s a lot. According to the New York University School of Law (via Reader’s Digest), “the average American household receives 848 pieces of junk mail, which equals 1.5 trees, every year and more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.” So take action and save your tree and a half!
If you’re getting a ton of credit card offers, try OptOutPrescreen, which is operated by the three major credit card reporting bureaus. You can opt for five years or forever.
Still getting a paper phone book? Try National Yellow Pages’ opt-out site, and be confident in your ability to find phone numbers online.
Make a list of paper catalogs and flyers you get in the mail, from places you’ve done business with. Check your recycling bin and your credit card history if you need clues to make a comprehensive list! (Or at least as comprehensive as you can. You can always follow up on this later if you get mail from a company you forgot about.)
Use CatalogChoice or start googling the customer service numbers for your list of companies. Ask them to take you off their physical mailing lists. If you still want a relationship with them, ask them to add you to their electronic mailing list instead. (But honestly, is there a company that doesn’t already have you on their electronic mailing list?) You’ll have to do this for political mailings, too.
According to market researchers, an average email subscriber (i.e, you) can expect to receive 464 commercial messages via email per MONTH. Start going through your electronic inbox, and unsubscribe from anything that isn’t one of your favorites. “But the deals!” we hear you say. Listen. If you ever need to buy something from that site, we trust you to google a coupon code. Plus, you can keep your favorites. But they’re not all your favorites, are they?
Next up, social media. Go through the list of accounts you follow and unfollow any that aren’t your favorites, especially if they sell products. It’s much easier to refuse to buy that cute new thing if you don’t even know about it. Remove the temptation.
Now add three accounts that make you happy or grateful to be in the world. (You’re welcome to join Heliodor Press on Instagram!) Ideally, they should not be marketing you products or adding to your to-do list. Look for something that inspires you or makes you smile.
Now, celebrate all the extra time you have now that you’ve opted to reduce your mail!
P.S. If you’re happy with the amount of trash you’re not creating via junk mail, check out our other tips for reducing waste, too.
