January 13, 2008 | Quick Tips
I hate receiving catalogs in the mail. Hate. It’s a waste of paper, it clutters up the house, and if I want to order something from a company that has a catalog, I’ll just do it online. Sheesh.
Want to stop the endless flow of catalogs to your house? Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decline specific catalogs. So if you want to keep a certain catalog or two, you can, but you can get rid of the rest. Or get rid of them all. Hallelujah!
[Hat tip: Green Mom Finds]
Posted by Mir @ 9:40 am
January 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Mir, thanks, oh pretty one, for posting something like this. I love the idea. I signed up, but then the process was really annoying/time-consuming! Getting rid of them all (my personal choice) means opting out of each one, one at a time. Also, you actually have to have some kind of customer code on hand, which means you have to actually gather the catalogs and have them by your side.
I ended up not finishing it, because frankly I have more pressing things on my to-do list.
If you come across something like the do-not-call list but for junk mail? I’m IN!
January 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I don’t know why my comment isn’t going through, but I have addresses to write to for getting off direct mail and pre-approved credit card offer lists!
January 13th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_53/b4065035213195.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives
This is an article from Business Week about Catalog Choice. It basically says CC requests a cancellation, but many of the companyies do not feel it is in their best choice to honor that request, so they don’t. You probably are better off just going through the company
January 13th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I’m not sure whether I got this link from wantnot or somewhere else, but this page tells you how to get rid of junk mail, pre-approved credit card ofers, telemarketing calls and email spam. Okay, ‘get rid of’ is too strong a phrase and there are pros and cons to all of them. But since I put my family’s names on all these lists we often have a totally empty mailbox and we haven’t gotten a single telemarketing call or pre-approved credit card offer. Give it a try!
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/20050803b1.asp
January 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Oh. My. God. I knew I received a lot, but I had no idea how many. I signed up and declined 229 catalogs. Thank you for this, Mir. I am tired of the stack of wasted paper every day, too. I sure hope it works.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Thank you for sharing this link!! This is something I’ve needed to do for a while.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Great tip! I hate it when I buy something from a catalog I like and then they sell my name to several others. Junk, junk, junk. Waste of paper, and junk.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
From link Jerajenn provided, there is information from the Federal Trade Commission regarding junk email:
“What Can I Do With the Spam in my In-Box?
Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Send a copy of unwanted or deceptive messages to spam@uce.gov. The FTC uses the unsolicited emails stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive spam email.”
I forward my junk email for awhile some time back, and I swear the amount diminished. Time to do it again…
January 14th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Hey Mir! Thanks for Green Mom Finds linky. I just wanted to say that I did Catalog Choice about 6 weeks ago and the mailbox onslaught has already tapered off. Take that, Pottery Barn!
January 14th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Thanks so much for linking to us!
January 14th, 2008 at 6:37 am
By the way, you DON’T need a customer code to decline catalogs. Just check the box underneath that says “Not Available.” You must decline each one you receive, with the exact name on the mailing list. I declined a bunch, and I plan to check each new catalog that arrives. There are different spellings of “MomCat”, so I receive catalogs addressed to “MommCat”, “MomKat” and “MomKatt.”
January 14th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Gee, I usually kind of like my catalogs, just not the frequency with which they send them - once or twice a year is fine, not every other freakin’ week!