Reducing Junk Mail

A bunch of services offer to help you reduce your junk paper mail for $15-20/yr, which is ridiculous for how easy it is to do once you know where to go.

If you want to spend the absolute least amount of time on this possible, fill out the forms in the following three services:

If you have a little more patience, the following are also worth it:

In addition to the above online forms, it's also commonly recommended to send out-out letters to the following, which I didn't bother with:

I spent under half an hour filling out online forms and my mailbox is no longer full of trash every day that immediately gets thrown away. Most days, it is completely empty. This is a huge improvement, in that I no longer miss important dead-tree mail that I actually want.

Another, more comprehensive list for this is the World Privacy Forum Top Ten Opt Outs. If you have more patience and want to try to get rid of the last few pieces of junk mail, go there next.

-- Aaron Hopkins