Is your mail box so full of fliers, ads, pamphlets and other junk that you can hardly find your real correspondence? Junk mail!

It clutters up your mail box, and it often ends up cluttering up your front entry or kitchen counter (or wherever you set your mail when you walk in the door) to boot!

Photo by Stephanie

You need a way to control it. Better yet, you need a way to prevent it from reaching your box in the first place!
Here are three tips to help you rid yourself of junk mail:

1. Place a small recycle bin directly below your mail box. Drop junk mail into the bin before it even enters your house. On garbage pick up day, simply dump the contents of your junk mail recycle bin into your main recycle bin for pick up.

You can use a small plastic storage bin with a lid to keep the contents from getting soggy when it rains.
If you live in an apartment, or otherwise can’t put the bin right below your mail box, put one right inside your door and drop the junk mail into it as you walk in with your daily mail. Many apartment buildings have a recycle bin at the mail station that you can use instead.

I think this adorable little bin from IKEA would be just perfect:

2. Put up a “No Junk Mail Please” sign on your mail box.
Of course, this one depends on other people to actually read and pay attention to this sign, but it can significantly reduce the amount of junk mail that end sup in your box.
However, just because it didn’t end up in your mail box doesn’t mean it disappears, which brings us to the last tip:

3. Stop it from being sent to you in the first place.
According to Global Stewards, 50% of junk mail is discarded unopened. Personally, I’m surprised the number is that low. I know I don’t open and read half of the junk I get.

Call your credit card company and your home service providers (TV, phone, internet) and ask them to not sell your name to third parties.
When you donate to a charity, write “Do not sell my name or address” on the form (or check off the box that says this, if they offer the option). Most of them will flag your account that you don’t want this information given out. Keeping you happy by not selling your info means you’ll be more likely to donate to them in the future.
Sign up with companies like Catalog Choice, and they will remove your name and address from as many catalogue mailing lists as they can, while letting you choose which ones you want to receive and which ones you don’t.

Remember that it can take some time for these tactics to begin to work (it can take weeks for companies to actually remove you from their mailing lists), but a less cluttered mail box is well worth it!

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