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5 Ways to Reduce Mail Clutter

Paper clutter can become a huge source of stress for many of us–especially the stuff that fills up our mailbox. Between the bills, credit card offers, catalogs, magazines, newspapers, the constant stream of incoming paper can drive any person batty.

The good news is, it’s possible to manage your home with very minimal paperwork involved in our digital world.

But if you’re still bombarded with junk on a daily basis and don’t have a system set up to filter out what you need to keep and toss, your home can end up looking like a mail room–not the calm and peaceful respite away from the daily grind.

So, if you’re ready to take control of your mailbox once and for all, check out the steps below. These will help you stem that constant flow of mail clutter that’s creating more mess and stress in your home.

How to Reduce Mail Clutter

1: Set Up A Junk Mail Toss Bin:

This one little trick will take you no more than 3 minutes to set up, but you’ll experience significant results right away.

All it takes is to keep a small trash can, recycling bin, or even a paper shredder near your entry way. Every time you get the mail, toss in whatever junk mail you get into this toss bin BEFORE you bring in the rest.

Then, just combine these with the rest of your other weekly paper recycling or batch it and pay your kid to shred them on the weekend.

2: Sign up for E-Statements:

Just about every bill and bank statement you receive in the mail can be received via e-mail. It’s cheaper for them and better for you in the long run since you won’t have to deal with keeping paper copies of everything.

Better yet, streamline this process further by setting up a separate folder or labels called “Bills” in your e-mail in box so that all your incoming e-statements will automatically go into this one folder. Just Google: “how to set up folders in (name of your email service)” for more information on this.

3: Switch to Digital Subscriptions:

If there’s a magazine, newspaper, or catalog you regularly read, see if you can receive it digitally instead.

4: Remove Yourself From Mailing Lists:

Fill out this form to stop receiving prescreened credit card and insurance offers from the major credit reporting agencies.

Fill out this form to stop receiving direct marketing offers. It costs $2 for a period of 10 years (So worth it)!

Use this form to opt out of catalogs. (You have to opt out of each catalog individually.)

5: Contact the Company:

If there’s a particular company who constantly sends you unwanted junk mail and catalogs, contact them directly and request to be removed from their mailing list.

Once you take these steps, it may take a few weeks for you to notice a reduction in mail. But there should be noticeably LESS mail in your mailbox.

That means less mail for you to sort through every day, less clutter in your home, and more time doing something other than dealing with junk mail!

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