Are you sick of junk mail taking up inventory on your counter? Lean practitioners always aim for eliminating waste. Here is how you can get rid of this annoying waste!
You can pay a few dollars by contacting the Direct Marketing Association and credit reporting companies (I found some instructions here). I was cheap and took the longer way by doing it all myself. Here are the steps I took:
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Create two sort piles – Keep and Junk
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Contact junk mail companies once a week – Use the company website and fill out a contact form or send an email. Avoid calling if you can. Have your envelope handy because marketing codes are usually above your name
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Capture your efforts – Document the dates and methods used to request removal from the mailing list. Add the affected name if more than one person gets junk mail (unfortunately an address can’t be blocked, all individual names need to be removed separately).
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Cease future junk mail – Be mindful where you provide your name and address at all times.
Funny side-note: some of the credit card companies already had “Remove from mailing list” as a drop-down option!
Here is the text I usually just copied and pasted: “Hello, please remove me from your mailing list. Name, Address, City, State, Zip. The code on the envelope is XXXXXXXX. Thank you.”
This whole process took me about four evenings over a month. I have seen incredible results from this little effort. You will too!
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