Effectively Getting Rid of Junk Mail

I just moved into a new place, and get excessive amounts of junk mail. It was painfully obvious that the former tenants got foreclosed on -- 15-20 pieces of mail come in a day, including credit card offers, debt consolidation and foreclosure assistance. Worst thing about this mail, is that 50% of it is directed to "Current Resident"

I don't know how everyone else feels, but I absolutely hate getting junk mail. Yes, it's very easy to just toss it in the recycling bin, but it's a headache to me to have to sort through the mail to find the actual mail that I want to read. I've had instances where I thought my garbage/water bill was missing (which comes from the city, and they don't support online transactions), but it was actually stuck within my junk mail, right next to the ADVO advertisement. Not to mention our culture is turning "green," so I'd like to save resources where possible.

The USPS unfortunately doesn't offer any real services to "stop" junk mail, because it impacts their bottom line. Most of their revenue comes from bulk mail, which mostly consists of advertisements. It's gotten pretty out of hand, so I spent this past weekend doing some research, and found the following resources. I hope this can help some of you in similar situations. One of the things on my to-do list this week is to get a rubber stamp saying "Refused: Return to Sender"

Good information on how to get rid of junk mail:
http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/

Here are some other resources I've found to unsubscribe from some mailing lists:
/alpak - http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressio...

Catalog Choice - http://www.catalogchoice.org
Lets you opt out of various mailing lists, including 3astBay, D3ll, etc..

Pennysaver USA - http://ecom.pennysaverusa.com/mailinglist/removalform.aspx

Opt Out from PreScreen Credit Offers - https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

One that I'm going to have some trouble with is "BetUS" -- they send catalogs every two weeks of betting lines (no idea how they got my address) and I've called them multiple times to get off their lists. Apparently they don't care, but I'm going to fill out a form with the USPS (PS 1500) which prohibits mail that I deem sexually arousing. They leave it up to you to decide what falls into that category, so I'm going to list these guys. Hopefully that takes care of it.

I'd love to hear any other tips FWF has on getting rid of junk mail. This reminds me why I don't have a land line anymore though, as that's just one more advertising channel I'll have to administrate.

Updated 1/1/2010:
Just a follow-up:

It's been about three months now, and I've reduced my junk mail to about one every two weeks! I know it's kind of lame, but I'm absolutely ecstatic about that..the only things I get now are random "Current resident" advertisements, which used to be repeat offenders, but I've been mailing them back with "Refused: Return to sender" and it's been working great.

After filling out form PS 1500 for BetUS, I haven't received anything from them since (I used to get a catalog of their betting lines every two weeks).

Great thread

Postal Employee: "May I help you?"
Kramer: "Yeah, I'd like to cancel my mail."
Postal Employee: "Certainly. How long would you like us to hold it?"
Kramer: "Oh, no, no. I don't think you get me. I want out, permanently."
Newman: "I'll handle this, Violet. Why don't you take your three hour break?
Oh, calm down, everyone. No one's cancelling any mail."
Kramer: "Oh, yes, I am."
Newman: "What about your bills?"
Kramer: "The bank can pay 'em."
Newman: "The bank. What about your cards and letters?"
Kramer: "E-mail, telephones, fax machines. Fedex, telex, telegrams,
holograms."
Newman: "All right, it's true! Of course nobody needs mail. What do you
think, you're so clever for figuring that out? But you don't know the half of
what goes on here. So just walk away, Kramer. I beg of you."
Supervisor: "Is everything all right here, Postal Employee Newman?"
Newman: "Yes, sir, I believe everything is all squared away. Isn't it, Mr.
Kramer?"
Kramer: "Oh, yeah. As long as I stop getting mail!"

You could do what I do. Get a Mailboxes ETC rental box and have ALL mail go there. NOTHING goes to my apartment and I NEVER open my apartment mailbox. As an experiment sometimes I clear out my apartment mailbox and in 3 days its completely fill with local advertisements.

I do it mainly for privacy reasons but also because when I order things from Amazon to save sales tax, I have someone who signs for my package rather than having to go to the UPS shipping center to pick it up.

I never get ANY junk mail!

Write "deceased" on the front of the unopened envelope and then write in red, "Return to Sender".

How about profiting from junk mail? Sign up for every piece of junk mail possible and use it to heat your house or save it and build a house with papercrete.

"I'm going to fill out a form with the USPS (PS 1500) which prohibits mail that I deem sexually arousing."

There is a FORM for this? Wow, I've got a new respect for American bureaucracy!

tripleB said: You could do what I do. Get a Mailboxes ETC rental box and have ALL mail go there. NOTHING goes to my apartment and I NEVER open my apartment mailbox. As an experiment sometimes I clear out my apartment mailbox and in 3 days its completely fill with local advertisements.

I do it mainly for privacy reasons but also because when I order things from Amazon to save sales tax, I have someone who signs for my package rather than having to go to the UPS shipping center to pick it up.

I never get ANY junk mail!

Never thought I'd ever agreed with B3. You've been GREENED. LOL

I use the prepaid envelopes from credit card offers to recycle old electronics. I sent Capital One 3 of my old CRT monitors and a huge stack of old newspapers I had lying around. You could effectively eliminate your trash service if you pulled it off right.

i used to clip cartoons send em back in the prepaid envelopes, my little way of supporting the post office.

g10ny said: My red wigglers love to eat junk mail.

Is that what you're calling it?

Here's an old thread on the same subject.

Do you trust these companies enough to follow proper household waste disposal and recycling procedures?

In the old days, opting out of junk mail and preapproved cc offers was a bad idea bc you would miss out on 0% offers and convenience checks...but right now theres not much good mail coming in

In a recent storm, my shaky mailbox fell over. I kind of propped it up temporarily.
After 3 days the mailman left a notice that I need to take care of it..
or else..

they would suspend my mail service.

So, there IS a very easy way to "cancel mail".

Technologist said: newlin99 said: I use the prepaid envelopes from credit card offers to recycle old electronics. I sent Capital One 3 of my old CRT monitors and a huge stack of old newspapers I had lying around. You could effectively eliminate your trash service if you pulled it off right.

Didn't want to waste time sending rocks... but old electronics, etc sounds GREAT! Might send used motor oil and household paint back this way too!

*anyone know the weight limit of a prepaid envelope taped to a box???*

I love this idea as well, I have an old smaller TV I need to get rid of. I would research the hazerdous substances though incase there is any rescrictions on putting it in the mail you might be breaking some kind of law.

Do you actually bring this stuff to the post office or just leave it sitting next to a mailbox? I think I would feel ackward trying to mail a box w/ a prepaid envelope taped to it.

t60 said: One that I'm going to have some trouble with is "BetUS" -- they send catalogs every two weeks of betting lines (no idea how they got my address) and I've called them multiple times to get off their lists. Apparently they don't care, but I'm going to fill out a form with the USPS (PS 1500) which prohibits mail that I deem sexually arousing. They leave it up to you to decide what falls into that category, so I'm going to list these guys. Hopefully that takes care of it.
"Oh yeah, that's hot. Right there...Saints by 7." *FAP FAP FAP*

I'm surprised the FWF crowd is supporting the U.S. Postal Service. I mean, it's a government program that loses money every year. I'm sure the PRIVATE industry can do much better.

Edit: I still contend that they receive some good tax breaks from the gov't that the likes of FedEx do not.

Porqin said: "Since its reorganization into an independent organization, the USPS has become self-sufficient and has not received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s. The decline of mail volume due to increased usage of e-mail has forced the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to maintain this financial balance."

Contribution of U.S. gov't to USPS in 2005: $3 billion.

U.S. subsidizes USPS

airblade said: This is just terrible, i dont know how you guys stand it. It takes me at least TWO MINUTES a month to throw my junk mail out and it really wears me down. Im sure if i could cut the time in HALF i would feel a lot better.

You must not be getting 10 pieces a day and then shredding items that have your name on them. I shred everything that has any identifying information, as well as those pre-approved offers. I don't need someone digging it out of the dumpster and applying for it using my information.

Let's see.. 5 - 10 pieces a day means approximately 25 - 50 pieces a WEEK (especially if you're like me and live in an apartment and get other people's junk mail mixed in with your own). Shredding takes about 15 - 20 minutes since it's a cross-cut shredder, and only handles 5 pages at a time without clogging so I have to open all the mail and unfold it. That's almost an entire episode of "How I met your mother" that I could have watched instead of shredding that crap.

I have some old junk in my closet that's going to be sent to the next bank that sends me a credit card offer with a postage paid envelope. Some old shoes, broken gym equipment, etc.. This will be fun!

cristinaaaron said: You can't use a business reply envelope to mail a brick or anything similar to the original sender....this is an urban legend. It is outlined in rule 917.243(b) of the Domestic mail manual. You can return anything that will fit inside of the envelope (ie all the junk mail you can cram into an envelope, a new/used kleenex, etc..), but if you tape it to an item the item will be disposed of at the first postal facility it hits or returned to sender if you leave a return address on item.

You can do this with postage return labels, however. Normally these will be barcoded and uniquely issued so the recipient will know who sent them the garbage. You can normally send up to 70 pounds with one of those.

So what if you put them as the sender? USPS sucks down the fee, or they chuck it?