One thing is certain, no matter where you live, if you have a mailbox, you get an endless stream of junk mail. Every piece has your personal information on it somewhere, and has to be disposed of. I burn it all in the winter months, but cut that down to only letter mail and catalog covers and inserts with addresses on them in the summer. The remaining catalogs and such go to the recycler. With this steady stream of mail I have found one bit that is useful. All the envelopes, and return envelopes make great pill packets, so I don't have to ever hunt for an empty container to put my morning pills in when I'm on the way out the door. (can't take them until a bit after breakfast) I had used everything from old pill bottles which were too big, to old percussion cap boxes that were just a little too small. A folded over half envelope is just the right size for a shirt pocket. Mail that gets immediately ripped in half gives me two useful packets. Stuff I have to actually open and read is at least good for one packet if opened on the end. They also make good scrap paper, can still go in the fire after they're used....and the price is right. HD
OR you could. Stopping Unsolicited Mail, Phone Calls, and Email Related Items Sign Up for the Do Not Call Registry Previous Next 123 Stopping Unwanted Sales Calls Prescreened Credit and Insurance Offers Cell Phones and The Do Not Call Registry Robocalls Tired of having your mailbox crammed with unsolicited mail, including preapproved credit card applications? Fed up with getting telemarketing calls just as you're sitting down to dinner? Fuming that your email inbox is chock-full of unsolicited advertising? The good news is that you can cut down on the number of unsolicited mailings, calls, and emails you receive by learning where to go to "just say no." Consumer Reporting Companies If you decide that you don't want to receive prescreened offers of credit and insurance, you have two choices: You can opt out of receiving them for five years or opt out of receiving them permanently. To opt out for five years: Call toll-free 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) or visit www.optoutprescreen.com. The phone number and website are operated by the major consumer reporting companies. To opt out permanently: You may begin the permanent Opt-Out process online at www.optoutprescreen.com. To complete your request, you must return the signed Permanent Opt-Out Election form, which will be provided after you initiate your online request. When you call or visit the website, you'll be asked to provide certain personal information, including your home telephone number, name, Social Security number, and date of birth. The information you provide is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out. If you don't have access to the Internet, you may send a written request to permanently opt out to each of the major consumer reporting companies. Make sure your request includes your home telephone number, name, Social Security number, and date of birth. Experian Opt Out P.O. Box 919 Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Name Removal Option P.O. Box 505 Woodlyn, PA 19094 Equifax, Inc. Options P.O. Box 740123 Atlanta, GA 30374 Innovis Consumer Assistance P.O. Box 495 Pittsburgh, PA 15230 Direct Marketers Telemarketing The federal government's National Do Not Call Registry is a free, easy way to reduce the telemarketing calls you get at home. To register your phone number or to get information about the registry, visit www.donotcall.gov, or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you want to register. You will get fewer telemarketing calls within 31 days of registering your number. Telephone numbers on the registry will only be removed when they are disconnected and reassigned, or when you choose to remove a number from the registry. Mail The Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) Mail Preference Service (MPS) lets you opt out of receiving unsolicited commercial mail from many national companies for five years. When you register with this service, your name will be put on a "delete" file and made available to direct-mail marketers and organizations. This will reduce most of your unsolicited mail. However, your registration will not stop mailings from organizations that do not use the DMA's Mail Preference Service. To register with DMA's Mail Preference Service, go to www.dmachoice.org, or mail your request with a $1 processing fee to: DMAchoice Direct Marketing Association P.O. Box 643 Carmel, NY 10512 Email The DMA also has an Email Preference Service (eMPS) to help you reduce unsolicited commercial emails. To opt out of receiving unsolicited commercial email from DMA members, visit www.dmachoice.org. Registration is free and good for six years. Department of Motor Vehicles The Drivers Privacy Protection Act allows states to distribute personal information only to law enforcement officials, courts, government agencies, private investigators, insurance underwriters, and similar businesses — but not for direct marketing and other uses. This article was previously available as Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email: Where to Go to "Just Say No."
We run it all through the shredder, then it either goes into the garden, the chicken coop, or into a bucket of sawdust and leaves and water to be pressed into firebricks. We really don't get much junk mail though, so when I need more I go to the bank and they give me all their shredded documents for the day.
The politician can still call you with political solicitation... So when you register be prepared to receive political calls
I make it a point to put every PreStamped Seld Addressed Envelope received, into the outgoing Mail. This does two things. 1. It makes mone y for the Post Office. 2. It costs the Outfit the Postage, required to get the Empty Envelope. Back in the Day, my Partner collected all the PrePaid Envelopes that were distributed around Campus, when he was in Graduate School, for mailing Film into a Film Processor. He then pasted each one to a Brick, that came from a building that was being Demoded. Put them all in a Wheelbarrow, and wheeled them down to the Post Office. The counter Clerk, wasn't going to accept them, but a Supervisor was called and she told the Clerk to take them ALL, weigh each one, and send the Company the Postage Bill. Needless to say, there were no more PreStamped Mailers distributed around that campus, for the next few years.... Just one of my many quirks....
Good ideas on what to do with the junk mail @hot diggity and @ditch witch. I also never thought of mailing the envelopes back. I do know for solicitation calls usually if you press 2, it is the option to be removed from their call list.
Life without unsolicited junk mail, phone calls during dinner, and spam e-mail? That would spoil a lot of fun for me. If the good folks on the phone can get past my three-second-delay hang-up routine and actually get me on the phone they're likely to end up listening to the TV while I sit back down and enjoy my supper. HD
I usually take the envelope from one advertiser and fill it with the advertisements from another and return it. Only seems fair.
When you do that, make sure your name and address doesn't show on the insertion, nor any code numbers that might be linked to your file. These things are usually pre-printed to save you the effort of filling in the blanks yourself. (To say that the junk distributors have caught on to receiving blank applications and are making smarter use of computer versions of Gutenberg's device.)
Punch *77 to block their calls, if you have that function. It sure cuts down on the calls, even the PC Gov. ones.
I use the envelopes for storing seed I have saved from the garden for replanting later. The window faced envelopes are especially good for that purpose.
@chelloveck where do you come up with these? You continue to surprise me with your creativity.... Chell's #1 fan
Nice to see such creative ideas to get rid of junk mail. I always amazes me to see that these direct mail marketing methods are still used in this Internet age. There are many mailing services like the Troi Mailing Service in Canada that still do mailing house services. And many of these methods still produce results, which is amazing.
Everything received by mail/ups/fedex here is shredded then burned. In the case of boxes, all labels are removed and shredded.We make it a habit of burning all boxes for "high ticket items" such as TV's, computers,ect instead of putting them in the trash. We have a fax hooked into the land line. Not that we use it much anymore,but any call where we don't know the ID gets picked up by the fax. We don't get much in the way of repeat calls after a couple pick ups by the fax.
