junkmail_header

I have a box full of mail at home. I don’t mean a shoe box or anything in the “small” vicinity – this box could hold a microwave. It’s full because I hate mail. Only a tiny fraction of what I get is actually necessary. Seinfeld’s Kramer shares my sentiments in Episode 161, where he returns Pottery Barn catalogs to the store, fills his mailbox with bricks, and tries to eliminate his mailing address all together.

Junk mail is the biggest pain in the butt, and my postwoman probably can’t disagree. Think about it – there’s an effort to design it, print it, package it, ship it. Then, once I get it, I’m sorting it, shredding it and trashing it. If I put off sorting it, stuff gets lost, a bill goes unpaid, a wedding RSVP gets sent late, or let the deadline pass for rolling over my 401k to an IRA (along with all kinds of taxes and penalties for “withdrawing” retirement money early).

I spent some time last year calling all the catalogs that I’d requested and asking them to stop sending me the stuff. There was even a time when if someone sent me something I didn’t solicit, such as a credit card application, with pre-paid return postage, I’d package up all the stuff they sent me into the envelope they provided and send it back without explanation–my way of sticking it to them. Of course, this resulted in a call from some credit card company saying, “We think you may have been a little confused about the process to apply for your pre-approved card…” Fail.

As much as I’ve tried to “go digital” with my mail, this only helped with a fraction of the stuff I need to sort through. Yes, my credit card bill conveniently shows up in my email inbox, or better yet, I get an alert on mint.com that the bill is due, but I still have to put up with anything sent to “resident of…” This primarily includes coupon packs, grocery fliers and stuff like that. Most of it ends up in my junk mail microwave box, to be dealt with later.

This offline problem couldn’t really be solved offline – nobody would target junk mail haters with a junk mail offer, because people like me would just add it to the pile, only to trash without opening at a later date. So, I was very excited to find a site called Precycle in one of my newsletters this morning. For $36, they manage to stop, or at least greatly reduce your junk mail (“with positive results in about 90 days”). Sold.

Now, while my frustration with junk mail is maybe only 5% environmental concerns, Precycle’s is 100%. In addition to the junk-mail-stopping service, your sign-up fee also covers the planting of five trees, two CFL light bulbs and a reusable grocery bag… for all the greenies out there.

It won’t stop everything. Brides will not start eviting people to their weddings, and grandma may still send you $10 checks for your birthday (don’t get me started on checks…), but if this means my microwave-sized box of mail can fit in one of those home mail receptacles, it will be well worth the money spent.

 

Related Posts
  1. The Strange World Of Direct Mail
  2. A Little Love Note
  3. An Open Love/Hate Letter to Foursquare (Stop Wasting My Data!)