We have written in the past about how to reduce the amount of junk mail you get. See these posts by JB on the topic: Post 1, Post 2.
Our friend, Dr. B.S. (hey, that’s his name!) discovered another way, and he’s written a post about it:
While there are many websites devoted to combating the overwhelming amount of junk mail people receive, I have been turned off by the cost and questionable ulterior financial motives that these sites proffer. However, I found one free site that I signed up for while surfing on the web this morning.
www.catalogchoice.org is a site where you can opt out of catalogs that you no longer wish to receive. The process is simple. You need to first create an account and click on the link in a confirmation email. You can then search for different catalogs that you wish to unsubscribe to. There is a pretty good selection of participating merchants that respond to this service. I signed up to opt out of future Crate & Barrel and Office Depot mailings. Surprisingly, REI was not available yet. For some of the companies, you need to enter a code number that appears on your address label. I will just wait until I receive those catalogs in the mail before I will process my unsubscription.
The service claims to take ten weeks before your catalogs will stop being sent to you. Hopefully I have a cleaner mailbox to look forward to in a few months!
Thanks Dr. B.S.!
What a timely post. I just learned about them myself (Friday last week in fact). I wanted to opt out of a Room & Board catalog that had somehow attached my address to it, and I found this was a great way to do it. One thing though… I really wish you didn’t have to create an account. It’s a pretty large barrier to eco-friendliness.
Just as a side note, I’ve been calling companies and taking my name off catalog mailings as I receive the catalogs. I think it’s been working so far!