declutterbug

I like getting junk mail.

Sure it's a waste of resources, and every few years I contact the people who have the power to remove me from all the direct mail lists, because the thought of being a tree murderer gets to me.

But when I'm getting a bunch of junk (usually after I've ordered something, gotten a magazine subscription, or joined an environmental group) I'm great about dealing with it.

What I mean by this is that I rarely keep any of it, nor do I sucumb to ordering a lifetime membership in an organization so I can get a free tote bag. These may seem like little things, but to a clutterer, resisting both keeping what already turned up on your doorstep (the catalog) and avoiding accumulating more through it (i.e. ordering anything) is big stuff.

Everyone in our household has a "mail box" made of one of those stackable in-boxes on a table about a foot from the place where the mail comes cascading into the house via an old fashioned mail shoot. I take my stack and stand over the trash can and recycle bin sorting away. I'll open things that look like they have free address labels in them, because, hey, free labels, and I'll keep a few of my favorite catalogs to look through. Then, out with the rest. Well, except for bills and important financial papers. I admit I do have a "peruse" pile, you know the stuff you need to look at before making a decision about (student loan consolidation offers, etc.) But I go through that every day or two so it doesn't build up into Mail Mountain.

Another thing that has helped me having a "traveling reading pile." When I am going somewhere I'll have a minute to read, I take a catalog or other disposable reading material with me, like a magazine or newspaper. I look at it, then recycle it. It leaves the house and never comes back in. If I absolutely need an article or info on something, I rip it out and put it in a binder when I get home.