If your home mailbox is anything like mine, it gets regularly inundated with spam like coupon mailers, credit card offers, and all kinds of unsolicited advertisements from companies that somehow got ahold of your name and home address. STOP UNWANTED JUNK ALREADY! Between you and me, I suspect that the person who provided them with your personal information is the same jerk responsible for all the socks that mysteriously disappear between washing and drying cycles.

The incessant accumulation of junk mail is a not merely an aesthetic problem or huge annoyance. It wastes valuable energy, ink and trees on a monumental scale. It has been estimated that each of us receives an average of 41 pounds of junk mail a year, which generates something like 105lbs of CO2. The bad news is that it’s difficult to prevent all this paper waste from happening in the first place, but the good news is that you can stop unwanted junk in your mailbox. Plus it only takes a couple of minutes.

 

OPT OUT VIA CREDIT CREDIT REPORTING COMPANIES

Use the link above to remove yourself for 5 years from lists supplied by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion and this should limit future offers of credit and insurance.

OPT OUT VIA NATIONAL DO NOT MAIL LIST

While it won’t ever be a perfect solution, it can really help to opt out of the DirectMail.com’s National Do Not Mail List. Fill in basic mailing details and quickly verify your identify via email.

OPT OUT VIA DMAChoice

Quickly create and account and opt out of catalogs, magazine offers, and promotions. DMAchoice™ is an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. This site is part of a larger program designed to respond to consumers’ concerns over the amount of mail they receive, and it is the evolution of the DMA’s Mail Preference Service created in 1971.

OPT OUT VIA SMARTPHONE

Download the PaperKarma app for free on your smartphone, then just snap a photo of the unwanted mail, and you’re done. PaperKarma’s elves will automatically contact the Mailer and remove you from their distribution list, effectively stopping most unwanted mail that is addressed directly to you. I know that we all prefer elves to bake cookies for us in trees, but an elf to stop unwanted junk in your mailbox is pretty fabulous too.