Reducing Junk Mail...Again

I've tried a couple of different methods to reduce our junk mail. In November, we started getting an obscene number of catalogs, most of which were unknown to us. Here's what I've done so far.

1. I signed up to Catalog Choice. It's actually pretty useful because not only can you select the catalog you want to stop receiving from their list, but you can then follow the progress of the cancellation. For example, I declined Sensational Beginnings, and I can go into "my choices" from the left sidebar and scroll down to my selection. There I can see the day I entered it in Catalog Choice, and the status of the request. In this case, it has been confirmed. I haven't received any more, and I shouldn't in the future. If I do, I can select "still receiving?" for that catalog and go from there. Other status items are: customer number required, processing, delivered, unconfirmed, refused.
   
   
2. I called the companies individually and kept a detailed spreadsheet with information such as company, phone, date called, customer number, catalog code, and the name the catalog was sent to. If I have to call again for any reason, all of this information is required, and they can be picky about it. For example, if you don't know the exact name the catalog was sent to, they probably won't be able to stop the catalogs. Overall, it's annoying and tedious, but I have definitely stopped seeing the catalogs I've called about.

Overall, both methods are effective, although using Catalog Choice is much, much, much less stressful and time consuming. Another nice benefit is you can go online and cancel at any time of the day, but you're much more restricted in you're actually making the phone call. Of course, there are mailing lists that I'd prefer not to be on that can't be addressed by Catalog Choice, so I still find myself calling every now and then. These include things like unwanted credit card offers and other random mailings.

On a similar note, I recently found out about how to get off of the Value Pak mailing list. Since we never use any of the enclosed coupons, they find their way right into the recycle pile. It'd be even nicer if they never showed up in the first place. So I'll make a note of my mailing information and see about putting a stop to this one next time.

Ooo...so exciting!!


Other services/references:
Green Dimes
New Dream