How to stop getting junk mail
OK, real talk time. Show of hands, who else is so incredibly sick of getting a thousand credit card offers, loan pre-approvals, and random take out menus in their mailbox everyday? Well, I cannot see your hands, but I am guessing that everyone else is over it too. Not only is junk mail a total nuisance to receive, it is also incredibly wasteful.
According to 41pounds.org, the average person receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year! Additionally, to produce and process 4 million tons of junk mail a year over 100 million trees are destroyed, not to mention the 28 billion gallons of water is wasted. In addition, $320,000,000 of local taxes are spent to dispose of junk mail each year instead of providing parks, libraries, health care and other valuable services.” Yikes!
But, drumroll please, did you know that you can stop the seemingly never ending stream of junk mail from reaching your mailbox? I was shocked to find how easy it was for us to cut off unwanted offers.
Here are the four easy steps that I used to end the junk, and let me tell you, since we have done this we have received ZERO junk mail. I’ll say that again for dramatic effect: ZERO. JUNK. MAIL. Let’s get started!
1. Remove your name from mailing lists:
To start, remove the junk mail from the source. Even if you have never signed up for a mailing list, you somehow end up on them. If you go to dmachoice to unsubscribe yourself from all mailing lists. They say it can take a while, up to 90 days, to stop the flow, but so far we haven’t received anything!
2. Stop credit card offers:
If you have ever had a credit card, filled out a loan application, or even a product warranty card, your information is circulating to other companies. You can stop this by removing your name from credit lists here: optoutprescreen
3. Stop phone books:
I can think of no larger waste of paper than phone books (especially in the age of the smart phone). To put a stop to it go to dexknows.com and opt out or go to yellowpagesoptout depending on your zip code and what phone books you receive.
4. Get off of coupon mailing lists
If you receive coupon books (like Valupak), you can put an end to their incessant mailings. Just go to https://www.valpak.com/coupons/show/mailinglistsuppression as well as http://www.valassis.com/1024/Contact/contact_home.aspx to remove your name from their lists. It is important to that your write in your address exactly as it comes on your mail and any variations that you receive (if your name is spelled wrong that is how it is on their list so you will have to enter it that way for removal).
And that is it! You are now free to receive nothing in the mail but birthday cards from Grandma and the awesome socks you ordered for Netflix night.
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