The only time I enjoy getting mail at home is when it is a post card from someone’s vacation, a handwritten thank you note, a party invitation or when a box arrives from a purchase online. So why is it that these simple joys seem to be happening less and less and are being replaced with JUNK?

Is your mailbox completely bombarded like mine? Is it filled with:

• Bills (I really need to go paperless and start paying them online!)
• Local newspapers (who has time to read them anymore?)
• Catalogs (I do my shopping ONLINE! I don’t need them!)

If you answered yes, then you definitely need to continue reading this post.

In this week’s installment of “Going Green,” we decided to share a few tips that can help alleviate a cluttered mailbox and side table, because let’s admit that’s where all of our mail gets tossed anyway. In the end you’ll feel good about your decision–you’ll be relatively paper free and if you look hard enough you may catch a few trees smiling at you.

The Good News: You have complete say in what gets delivered to your home.

The first thing you should do to rid your home of junk mail is to assess what you would like to continually have delivered and what you would like to stop in its tracks. Chances are you would rather have a majority of it stopped. Most of the time we don’t even know how or why it started coming in the first place. Well, to answer that question–a lot of companies share mailing lists. So if you have ever subscribed to one magazine or catalog you didn’t really only subscribe to one, you’ve opened the gate for countless publications to come your way.

After you’ve made the decision of what you would like to keep receiving  then you should take your name off mailing lists. I know what you are thinking? I wish there was an unsubscribe button like I have on email for snail mail. We wish that too. Until that invention becomes a reality here is what we can tell you…

Find the source of the problem AKA the company who is sending the junk. Once you have identified the junk senders, call or email them and submit a request for the junk to STOP. If this sounds too time consuming there are companies that exist that can do the dirty work for you.

Below are companies worth checking out.

Non- Profit:
4. Eco Cycle
One of the largest non-profit recycle companies in the U.S. with international credibility as well.

5. Obviously
A resource that provides little known tips on how to easily stop junk and telemarketers on your own.

For Profit:
1. Green Dimes
Famously backed by Matt Damon and Oprah Winfrey.

2. 41 Pounds 
Gets their name from the average amount of mail in pounds that a person receives per year.

3. Stop the Junk Mail 
Promises to help reduce junk mail by 90%.

Good luck and we hope you are rid of junk mail forever!

Photo by J Aaron Farr