This story is part of Try This, CNET’s collection of simple tips to improve your life, fast.
Junk mail is a drag. How many times have you pulled a massive stack of letters from your box, only to send it all to the recycling bin? The Sierra Club estimates that junk mail uses up 80 to 100 million trees per year.
But it’s not impossible to slow the flow of worthless paper traveling through your mailbox, even if it might take a little persistence. Whereas telemarketing calls can be stopped largely through the National Do Not Call Registry, eliminating all junk mail requires a few extra steps.
Here’s how to halt those financial offers, stem endless catalogs and take yourself off marketing lists. (And here’s how to track a letter or package you do want directly to your mail box.)
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
How to stop credit card, loan, mortgage and insurance junk mail
A good place to start is with financial junk mail since it’s the easiest to stop. The consumer credit reporting industry maintains its own “opt out” list at OptOutPrescreen.com.
Simply provide your name and address and you can stop preapproved financial offers either for five years or permanently. (You can also opt back into these offers if you change your mind later.)
How to stop receiving junk-mail catalogs
You can always cancel the catalogs you receive one by one by contacting each sender. Or Catalog Choice can do it for you, for free. Catalog Choice is a project related to The Story of Stuff and is funded solely by donations.
After you register for a free account, search for catalogs by name and then remove yourself or others at your address (such as former residents) from the mailings. Catalog Choice will either manage the cancellation requests for you or point you to the page on the vendor’s site where you can remove yourself.
Catalog Choice also recommends registering with DMAchoice, a service run by the Data & Marketing Association that allows you to opt out of commercial mailings. It costs $2 for 10 years to request that your name be removed from direct-marketing lists in four categories: credit offers, catalogs, magazine offers and other mail offers. DMAchoice is also endorsed by the Federal Trade Commission.
PaperKarma is another paid service that can eliminate junk mailers. Snap photos of any junk mailer logo then upload to PaperKarma with the name you want removed, and the service will take care of the rest. PaperKarma costs $4 a month, $25 a year, or $60 for a lifetime membership.
Stop junk-mail coupons and marketing offers
Those advertising flyers addressed to “Current Resident” and blue envelopes full of coupons you never use? They’re harder to stop because of the USPS’ Every Door Direct Mail service, which mail bombs neighborhoods by address, not name.
You can make a big dent by taking your address off the biggest marketing lists. Just request to be removed from the mailing lists of major junk mail senders:
Here’s the kind of junk mail you can’t stop
These services can’t stop people from walking around your neighborhood and putting flyers or coupons in your mailbox or on your front stoop — even if you have a placard against soliciting. In that case, you may have to politely ask the person dropping off circulars to skip your residence.
For more tips, learn how to cut a cake with dental floss and how to remove contact lens easily when traveling.