This picture has nothing to do with the post, but this weeks been a little slim on the Lamp cuteness front…so here you go.
Thanks ya’ll for all the input on the upcoming move to Texas. I’m starting to get more excited… honestly. It’s weird being so nomadic these past few years I feel like I’ve come to enjoy change a little bit more. Or perhaps I just enjoy getting to live in all these places I wouldn’t normally get to live and I just appreciate the opportunity.
Now onto Friday’s question, sorry if it’s a little wordy but here it is: I’ve been wanting to cut down on the amount of mail we receive, especially junk mail and catalogs. Even catalogs from companies I love (Anthro, J. Crew, Urban, Crate and Barrel, Sundance) aren’t really necessary when I can just browse online. So the question, the actual question is how do you get rid of junk mail and subscriptions? At first I thought I could just call each company and ask them to take me off their list, but then I found a couple of sites online that you can join and they do this for you and it seems to make the whole process a lot easier. BUT then I worried about the validity of these companies and if they were really just marketers in disguise or if they charged money. Or if they are valid, do they even work? For example Catalog Choice, Direct Mail preference registry, or this nice little Wikihow article (I guess I could just read that, but I want to hear your ideas).
So, my smart and attractive readers, have any of you slimmed down your junk mail and catalog intake? If so how did you do it?
Thanks!
I did Green Dimes (which is now Precycle) 4 or 5 years ago and it made a big difference initially. Pretty much eliminated credit card applications, mailers, etc. My junk mail has started to creep up over the past year, so I probably need to do it again. I don't know how much the increase has to do with the change of the company, or if it is something that "wears off" over time.
http://precycle.tonic.com/
We used catalog choice when we lived downtown and saw a substantial reduction. (The trick is save the catalogs and mailings for awhile & enter them all at once onto the website.) We haven't signed up with them in the new house and started getting a lot again. There are 'change preferences' links on a lot of the e-newsletters from stores that we get and some of them have a checkbox for no paper mail.
She is darling! You need to post more pictures of her!
I have no idea. BUT I really love the adorable photo of Lamp! 😀 And we are going to miss you guys when you head to Texas.
With this last move I was shocked at how little increase there was with our junk mail. The only advice I have is concerning credit card offers. Instead of just recycling or shredding them, I open them up and mail the information/application back to them with the pre-stamped envelope. On the application I write void in red ink and then ask to be removed from their mailing list. When you mail the envelopes back to them, they have to pay postage which I assume is irksome if they are not getting a new customer. When I started doing this, we completely stopped receiving offers in six months. We get a total of zero now. It's fantastic.
We did this 10 years ago with our church. It was fantastic, but a lot of work. Call them. Call them again. Refuse to accept the mail–10 years ago we could return to sender, but I don't know if you still can do that. We wrote letters to everyone and asked. The amount of work involved is tremendous, but it oh so worth it in the end. We literally have no junk mail. None. Many days our mailbox is empty, and I love it.
Good luck to you.
i saved up my catalogues and then went to the individual sites to unsubscribe. i started doing that with email subscriptions too because i was being bombarded by junky messages.
i'll probably check out precycle too, and see what else i can unsubscribe from. save trees! also, how disappointing is it to realize that more than half your inbox is NOT email from real people?
and yes, lamp is ADORABLE.