August 5 ~ A Free Country
“This is a free country. Folks have a right to send me letters, and I have a right not to read them.” ~ William Faulkner

One man's junk is another man's treasure Some people love chain letters. Others hit delete. Some love junk mail, others do not. “To invent,” said Thomas Edison, “you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

If you’re on Team Declutter, here are a few tips for clearing your life of useless paper and electronic noise...

For postal junk mail: If your mailbox is overflowing with sweepstakes and catalogs, you can contact the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service (via DMAchoice.org):

DMAchoice.org – $2 online / $3 by mail – removes most national prospect mail for 10 years.

Or mail to:
Mail Preference Service
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735‑9008

You're welcome.

The Association handles 50,000 requests a month and can stop about 75% of all national mailings.

In the meantime, return first-class junk to sender. Cross out your address, circle the postage, and write: “REFUSED – return to sender.”

Norman Vincent Peale reminded us, “Always remember that problems contain values that have improvement potential.”

For email spam: “SPAM”—unsolicited commercial email—originated from a Monty Python sketch about spam-loving Vikings. According to J.D. Falk’s Net Abuse FAQ, most email users encounter it weekly and support regulation to stop it.

The Spam Series is a helpful online guide to managing it.

Albert Einstein said it best: “Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

AffirmationThe delete key works neatly.