Paper Survival Tip #6: Junk Mail

I heard some interesting statistics on junk mail the other day that I thought that I would share. Please note that I can not verify these statistics. But, if you don't think that junk mail has an impact on our time, energy, and environment then take a look at these: 

• Every adult will spend an average of 8 months of their lives dealing with junk mail.
• The average adult is on 50 mailing lists and receives 41 POUNDS of junk mail every year.
• We use 52 million trees and 25 billion gallons of water to produce one years worth of this country's junk mail.
• The average adult receives as much junk mail in one month as their grandparents did in a lifetime.

Even if those statistics prove not to be 100% accurate, I think it is fair to say that junk mail has a huge impact on our lives. As difficult as it is to deal with the paper that we do need to keep, it can be even more frustrating adding mail that we have no interest in adding to our paper dilemma. The best thing to know however is that you can take back control of your mailbox. It isn't instantaneous and it isn't for sissies but it can be done with dilligence and patience.

After going through many different steps of controlling my own junk mail and helping our clients with theirs, we have developed a tip sheet to help you start the process yourself. I chose the DIY route and signed up for the free subscription on Green Dimes (now called Tonic Mailstopper) and the DMA. It took approximately 6 months to see a big difference. The only junk mail that I receive now is for previous occupants and "Dear Residents". As they come in, I enter those names in as well to my opt-out list. I have set up accounts with some of the online companies for clients who chose to have them do the work for them. That seems to be the route to go in my opinion. It is pretty inexpensive when you think of the amount of time you spend on maintaining the opt out lists yourself. This is expecially true if you are on several lists and receive many catalogs.

One other source of mail overload to consider taking control of are statements from utility companies and banks. By setting up and paying bills online, you reduce your paper piles, help the environment and keep costs down for the companies, which in turn keep rates down for you. PayItGreen.com  is a coalition of financial service companies that promote electronic billing. According to the coalition, if the average U.S. household switched to electronic payments, it would annually save 6.6 pounds of paper, .079 trees, eliminate 4.5 gal of gas and 63 gal of wastewater. They also have this neat calculator that lets you determine your household financial paper footprint. If environmental issues don't persuade you, then maybe money will. Ebillplace.com states that the average family would save $50 a year in postage and 5 hours spent writing and stuffing checks into envelopes. That alone would pay for your subscription to an online junkmail management service.

Controlling your mail really comes down to choosing what is important to you. You can opt-out of the mailing lists that you don't like but stay on those that you really enjoy receiving, so control really is the name of the game and that is what companies hope you would do. They want to be spending their marketing money on people interested in their product and not annoying those that aren't.