A life less cluttered: Step #2

So step #1 involved getting indignant and deciding to spend $30 to join a group called "Private Citizen." The initial materials for that membership showed up the other day. They have requested my signature and approval for them to start sending letters on my behalf to the largest proprietors of direct/unsolicited mail and telemarketers. For Junk Calls, it authorizes "Private Citizen" as your personal agent in the submission of your name of their own Do-Not-Call-Directory which they in turn to distribute to various offenders. For Junk Mail, your signature gives Private Citizen the right to contact "The U.S. House Committee on Government Reform" and 8 of the most egregious junk mail companies in the country and to tell them directly that you do not wish to receive junk mail/unsolicited mail. In fact, the specific language and recommendations from "Private Citizen" tells the telemarketing industry that they are denied the free use of your property and time (you phone and the fact they called you) except on a case-by-case basis wherein they agree to pay you $500 for each time they call. The literature which comes in your initial package gives instructions in how to play these telemarketers so that you can get enough information to collect. Apparently people do...

The initial package also comes with a small form which you can sign and laminate for placement out adjacent to your mailbox. It's a "Notice of Refusal of Mail: Pursuant to USPS Domestic Mail Manual, Section 508 - 1.1.2." In this notification which you can laminate and post, you basically tell your postal delivery person that you refuse to accept mail which does not designate you by name. It specifically lists the following: Postal Patron, The Family At, Occupant, Our Friends At, Current Resident, Box Holder, The Folks At, Postal Customer.

So I've signed the initial papers and put them in the mail. We'll see if I start to notice less junk mail. I'm going to wait to post the "Refusal of Mail" for a couple of months to see if notifying the big baddies alone did the trick... It feels good to be doing something to eliminate the clutter though. You should see how much random paper I am throwing into my recycle bin today. Pounds of it I tell you.