How to Rid Yourself of Junk Mail For Good

There's nothing more frustrating than an mailbox full of junk mail, so make dealing with junk mail one of your Spring resolutions. To start with, here are a couple of sites you should visit:

  • Catalog Choice: With over a million users and counting, this is a free and easy way of cutting down your catalog junk.
  • Direct Marketer's Association: You can request one of the over 3,600 companies under the DMA's umbrella to stop sending mail to you. This includes credit offers, catalogs, mail offers, and magazine offers.
  • OptOutPrescreen.com: A bunch of credit reporting companies started this website to soothe the frustrations of consumers. This is a good site for opting out of those endless credit card offers.

If you're done checking out the above sites and the flow of junk mail from certain retailers still hasn't stopped, you can also try manually contact the culprits. If you have the time, you can phone the companies to opt out of their mailing lists. Or if you prefer, you can dig around on their websites to see if you can be removed from their list online.

Remember to note on an Excel sheet or Google doc details of the companies you have contacted and the dates you spoke with them so you'll know when to follow up.

If you've moved to a new place, you might find yourself inundated with the previous tenant's mail. First, you should communicate to the mail carrier that you're receiving a previous tenant's letters, says Sue Brennan, a spokesperson for the US Postal Service. You can do this by telling the carrier in person, leaving a note in the mailbox, or writing the word "moved" on the ex-tenant's mail. Source: Etsy user TerraViam