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.”