Wouldn’t it be nice if you could open your mailbox everyday and only find the things that you really want or need, instead of a big stack of garbage that you need to spend thirty minutes sorting. Not only is it better for you, but you’re being kind to our planet as well.

Step One: Paperless Billing, Baby!

Get your bills and statements out of you mailbox and into you inbox. If you haven’t already signed up for paperless billing on all of your accounts that offer it, you should. Many companies advertise this service on the envelope or statement that they send you each month, because hey, it saves them money too. Right?

If they don’t advertise it on the mailer itself, go to their website and see if they have information about it there. Not all companies are doing this, but those who aren’t are becoming the minority.

This step will add to your email load a bit, but isn’t that better than having to sort through an endless stack of envelopes each month.

Step Two: Tell Those Unwanted Advertisers to Buzz Off!

Now that you’ve stopped most of your bills from coming in paper form it’s time to get rid of that dreaded direct mail. There are a number of different ways to stop unwanted direct mail from coming, but the easiest way that I’ve found is to go to DMAchoice.org. This free online service is run by the Direct Marketing Association and allows you to easily opt out of credit card offers, magazine subscription offers, catalogs, and other mail offers.

You may be asking yourself, “Why would a group, whose sole purpose is to promote and support the direct mail industry, want to offer consumers an easy way to stop receiving direct mail?” That is a very good question, one that I was asking myself also. The answer, though, is fairly simple I think. They are trying to cultivate goodwill with the general public.

The credit card offer opt-out will actually take you to a second site where you can either opt out for five years online or you can mail in a form for lifetime opt-out.

The sections of their site for magazine offers, catalogs and other mail offers each give you the choice of opting out by company or opting out of all offers of that type with a single click.

It may take a month or two for these items to stop showing up in your mail and there may be a few cases where you’ll need to contact the company directly, either by phone, mail, or online. Also keep in mind that if you have actually purchased something from a company, they may still send you some items unless you contact them directly.

If you haven’t already followed both of these steps, do it today. Your mailbox will thank you!

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com