How to Manage Junk Mail?

[tylerrr]

Looking for advice....

I'm sick of going through junk mail(the physical kind in your physical mailbox) and getting rid of most of it....

I've tried services that are supposed to get rid of credit card mailings, etc...didn't work well.

Do you use any service? How do you eliminate it?

I know there are services like this now that do it for you and scan your mail so you can see it online:
https://www.earthclassmail.com/solution ... learn-more

Got any advice?

thanks

[jacob]

For physical mail, I place a container (bucket/bag) as close as possible to the mail slot (keeping the distance is short is important .. here it's <2 feet) and sort it right there for minimal mental load/concern/damage. Insofar I deem it safe for my red wiggler worm farm going on its third year (no color printing), I walk it 30 ft to the compost bin (outside in the summer; in the basement in the winter) and dumb it there. The worms will eat it eventually.

The added carbon is good/necessary (literally, scientifically) for building cell walls and so provides a valuable service. Sending it across the nation wastes a lot of carbon dioxide emissions but it's not like junk mail recipient can do much to prevent the waste---for those who don't get junk mail carbon, a cheaper way is collecting falling leaves during fall. The other ingredient for proper composting is nitrogen (required for protein-building) which I get from food scrap cutoffs which is abundant whereas carbon is not. So junk mail provides some material input to my composting. So thank you not-so-random local insurance agents

For junk email which is more of a mental hassle, I use my mail program to set up "rules" on top of the already existing Bayseian junk mail filter. For example, anyone who emails me with obnoxious follow-ups immediately gets added to a filter list that sends the mail directly to trash thus ensuring that I'll likely never see them again. Command , click Rules, click +, click accept => virtual wall established, at least for that person. *BAM!*

PS: There's some commercial list that'll remove you from mailing lists for ~5 years. I forget what it's called. Try to keep this "switched on" at all times. You'll know when five years have passed if you start getting CC offers once again.

[cmonkey]

You can opt out from pre-approved credit cards using this site. You can also use DMAchoice to opt out of a whole lot more including catelogs, insurance offers, etc...I did this (or similar) like 2-3 years ago and the results have been good. Keep in mind this is more for unsolicited junk, you'll still get catalogs and stuff from companies that you've ordered stuff from. Also, this doesn't block anything local either. So overall our junk mail rate has dropped by perhaps 60%.

[vexed87]

@jacob, what do you do with your colour printed junk mail?

[jennypenny]

fire pit fodder

[jacob]

@vexed87 - IL doesn't sort/recycle at the bins, so that ultimately goes into the trash (bag at the door) along with everything else.

[tylerrr]

thanks everyone.....

Depending on the price, the service I listed is very tempting.....They shred everything for you and over time you just receive what you want!!

I read somewhere once where the average human spends over a year of their life going through junk mail?

[Fish]

I read somewhere once where the average human spends over a year of their life going through junk mail?

Debunking this one is easy enough. Assume a 100 year lifespan. Spending a year of one’s life on junk mail would be 1% on average. 1% of one day (24 hours = 86,400 seconds) is 864 seconds which is about 14 minutes. Do you devote 14 minutes every day to junk mail? I don’t. Maybe you have a serious junk mail problem which prompts your question?