Yes, I know that is a lot built up and my mailperson probably hates me.
I'm just never particularly motivated to check the mailbox because of this. The fact that my mailbox has a key that I don't (and can't) carry with my other keys adds a separate layer of apathy to the task.
So much waste.
When my mom worked for the post office she used to say the junk mail kept the post office in business, that’s where a big chunk of money comes from.
I guess if it's keeping people employed with decent jobs I can make my peace with it.
But it still feels like someone is handing me their trash and forcing me to throw it out for them.
I like to see it as getting kindling delivered to your home
It’s quite nice of them to help heat the house in the winter.
Who has a fireplace in THIS economy?
relevant Mitch hedberg bit (30 sec)
Thats 100% what I was thinking of when I wrote that.
RIP Mitch.
I had just rewatched a 20 min hedberg clip/special the other day. So when I came across your post... I was like...
It's literal garbage. We're producing a ton of garbage just to have it be hand-delivered to everyone's homes.
We can find better jobs for folks than bringing garbage to people.
My mom’s point was that without the money they get in for ads, stamps and postage for everyone else would cost more.
Then junk mail should be priced so that actual mail costs us nothing.
So we'd have to pay the true cost of the service, driving more things to be paperless? The horror!
I don’t need it delivered to my box six days a week. Cut it half to save $$
Mail used to be delivered twice a day, back in the day.
Just find a way to use that junk. I mean, if this is coming know regular basis, you should get a fireplace or a firestove.
Don't throw it away. I use it as paper to wrap my used period products in before trashing. The glossy paper seals any and all leakage, it's perfect.
What I do is put them in a stack and when I am bored or have free time I go through them and look for a phone number and I call and ask them to remove me from their list. After a couple of years of doing this I only get maybe 1 piece of junk mail a week.
I got a "recipient not at this address" stamp, and stamp them then every month or two drop them at the post office, over the past 3 years, I think it dropped to about 1/10 of the level b4. You need to make sure the address is illegible or usps will just redeliver
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D4P5PQG
Lots of junk mail gets labelled as "Current Resident" or "Resident" and those are still going to be delivered. If you mark those as "Not At This Address" you are just going to get the mail man to stop delivering mail at your address altogether, because apparently, you, as the current resident are not at that address. We will mark your address as vacant.
There are other ways to handle junk mail, and maybe this worked in your case, but I would advise against recommending this solution to other people because that's not going to work for most people.
That not how it works at all, but regardless I dont mark current resident mail and i thoroughly recommend this approach, it will work for most people as it had been really effective.
Oh, I'm a postal worker so I think I know how it works 😂
It works and I dont send current resident mailer back, so your pont is what exactly
Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer keeps getting pottery barn catalogues and wants to cancel his mail and it’s a whole conspiracy
like many free things, its funded by ads
Then the junk ads should make actual mail actually free
In Austria a lot of packages of online stores is also handled by the post office.
Also team hardly ever check the mail lol. But this is why.
I only checked the mail because I was expecting a replacement for one of my credit cards.
Had that not been the case, it would all still be in there.
There’s a don’t mail me thing you can sign up for. 888-5OPT OUT. You can do 5 years without a mail back and permanent with mail back request!
If this works, it should just be the default.
Why can't we have an opt-in policy?
Your answer, in song format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0
But what about the 2-4 pieces of mail I need a year?
This time it was a replacement credit card.
I think this is about opting out of promotional mail. And I never knew this existed. I am 1,000% going to look this number up and call. Nothing makes me more pissed than constantly getting these stupid “final notice” and “final offer” pieces of shit every day in the mail.
I have spent the last 4 years or so building up my credit. I also bought a car this year.
So it's a lot of "pre-approved" credit card offers, fake warranty shit for my car, and refinancing shit.
On one hand I'm glad that they're wasting their paper. On the other hand I'm mad that they're wasting paper.
On the third AI generated hand, I never have to waste good paper to start a charcoal grill or bonfire :)
It only gets worse if you ever run into anything legally, you’ll get multiple letters a day from law firms across the country
For me it’s homeowners insurance 😒
It is only promotional/solicitor mail
I like to take garbage from my car, and pack it in the return envelopes.
USPS gets paid for it, and my car stays clean, sometimes they even stop mailing me.
It’s a win win win situation.
Just use company A's return envelope for company B's mailers, and visa-versa.
what a chode move. 😅
I’m always afraid with this much junk mail, I’m going to accidentally throw out a bill.
Also, having to open said junk mail looking for pre-addressed bullshit so you can shred it is another brand of infuriating
Yeah some of it is obvious, but some letters are ambiguous so you have to open it.
With this particular pile, I first sorted it into "obvious junk" and "ambiguous" piles.
Then I had to open everything in "ambiguous", and the last envelope standing was what I was looking for.
You don't know the half of what goes on here, Kramer...so just...walk away..!
I go through the mail standing at the trash barrel.
My dad died 12 years ago. I still get junk mail for him.
Yes. Most of mail now is junk mail
I don’t think that has changed in over 100 years
Well, we used to get more bills in the mail before the internet.
Sure, but most of it has always been junk mail. The first 25 years of your life might mostly been real mail but once you’re exposed to existing in systems that changes. It’s not the mail changing though, that’s just it finally including you in the normal pile.
We still get important stuff in the mail though so you cant throw it all away. I have a pile ready to burn though. Kinda annoying i get all these credit card offers and that forces me to burn it.
A lot of those credit offers don’t have anything important in them at all, just your name and address like anything else.
Lol, just what scammers need
Literally almost all of your mail has that, plus it’s public information anyways. Just tossing credit offers in the trash won’t increase your risk anymore than any other mail with your name on it, which is negligible since any scammer can find out the name on every property in every state unless it’s hidden behind a shell company.
Well, scammers are first trying to assess where you live so they can determine if it is worth doing a quick claim deed and borrowing in your name. That is why you basically give a scammer nothing.
Just like my email nowadays, except this actually takes up physical space.
And uses up physical resources only to become physical waste.
In Norway we can go to the post office and get some stickers saying "no thanks to marketing materials", stick em onto our mailboxes and presto, no more need to put the paper recycling bin super close to the mailbox
In the US they can't stop it. Insanity! I don't want all that crap and nobody can shut it off!
Wait till you turn 65. We constantly get repeat offers for healthcare plans. EVERY YEAR!!I hate it!
Oh I'm sure.
I'm 40. I'm sure the AARP mailers are right around the corner.
Yup this is me as well. Haven't checked in three weeks.
Though I also subscribe to informed service thing(screenshots of mail in email)
Junk mail used to be welcome when we had a fireplace. Now it's just keeping my paper bin full until Wednesday.
That junk mail on the right is why you can get the other mail so cheap.
It’s always been like this but I don’t mind since the junk got to the fire.
I don't know man, it seems worse to me. Junk mail has always been a thing, but I don't recall ever getting thus much.
I got less mail even way back before I could pay all my bills online.
I hear you
There really is no junk mail. Everybody wants to get a check or a birthday card, but it requires just as much manpower to deliver as their precious little greeting cards
The only actual mail we get in my country is bills. And even that is dying with electronic bills
I pay 100% of my bills online. The two pieces of mail I kept were a replacement credit card for one I lost, and a coupon for 25% off my next pil change from the shop I go to.
Years ago there was a news segment (I swear it was on a show called PM Magazine) I watched where one guy had built some kind of boiler or something in his basement and ran a lot of his house off junk mail. He had deliberately got himself on all kinds of lists and regularly received bunches of it daily.
Outside of motor vehicles and getting a passport I get zero needed mail. I check the box once a week and it’s 99% junk. If it keeps people employed it’s no big deal to me to just throw it out though.
In Germany, if you have a sticker on your mailbox u don't want junk they have to oblige.
Only if this is promotional mail without a specific address on it.
In the US there is very little mail without an address. Most have the mailing address and a name on it.
They keep pushing you and pushing you. It's time for you to fight back.
i'm the UK, and the amount of post I get has pretty much dwindled to nothing... maybe 2 letters per week,,, cannot say the same re the amazon guy...
I get that amount of relevant mail a year, and that amount of junk mail every month. I know people delivering junk get paid but it just adds to the recycling bins, or in my case general rubbish bins cause my small estate in the UK doesn't have room for recycling bins. Not only that but our bins only fit 2 80ltr bin bags AND we have a pick up every 2 weeks and those bins are full after a week :)
I loathe those thin newspaper things that come weekly full of coupons. DO NOT WANT.
Here, you throw this away - Mitch Hedberg
You can opt out of most junk mail here for a $6 fee for 10 years
https://www.dmachoice.org/
It doesn’t include anything that says current resident, political mail, or mail from companies or organizations that could consider you a current customer (Within the last 2 years). I did this for my name, my boyfriend’s name, and like 2 names of people that have lived here in the past (10+ years ago). Seems to work very well.
Also do this one for free to eliminate credit and insurance offers
OptOutPrescreen.com
The opt out hotline I mentioned in my reply is free also!
yes the opt out hotline is the same as the optoutprescreen website which is specifically for credit and insurance offers
I did this a while back and it did seem to work.
The only thing to remember is you'll still get junk mail addressed to previous residents, junk mail addressed to "current resident", "resident", or anything that doesn't have your name on it.
But thank you for posting the link because I've been meaning to do it for my bf too cause we still get his junk mail :P
You can do it for previous residents too. I still get a rare piece for previous residents but it drastically cut back after I put their names in too.
When I lived in an apartment all my bills were autopay so I just never checked the mail. I don't want or need your spam, delivery rejected.
Mailperson probably hated me too. But I also hated them for delivering spam. Guess we're even.
In a world full of physical spam, paper shredders are your best friend.
Too lazy. It all just goes into the trash/recycling.
Although, I do work an office job at a center that provides services to children and there are a lot that get a kick out of shredding papers for me.
I wish they would print junk mail on paper that could be useful for other things, like making fire without putting off crazy emissions or something. I wouldn't mind receiving actual kindling or maybe some other kind of useful idea.
Personally, I think it's very nice of these random people to deliver me so much free kindling with power bills being what they are it's very much appreciated.
What mildly infuriates me is the checkmark being red
I thought of making it green, but ultimately I applied the same amount of effort that I do to emptying the mailbox regularly.
Why not burn them for free fuel?
Unpopular opinion: I guess I'm still just a big kid because I like getting mail, junk or otherwise. I look forward to whatever arrives every day.
If they would charge the junk mailers the same as they charge me to send a card or letter, their financial situation would change dramatically.
They pay less but receive a much slower delivery service than you do with 1st class postage
I would pay for a service to block mail from recipients or types of mail. They could restrict off bills/utilities and government mail from the service but I’d rather go online and say no I don’t need this mail in my mailbox.
Resembles most email inboxes
Thats about my weekly ratio too.
The only real mail I get is government issued stuff that they won’t sent to a PO Box. I have gotten zero other mail that was not spam or for a past resident (and still mostly spam) in probably a decade.
You know you can put up a sign and end this right?
I haven't seen physical mail in years...
Tbh.. it’s some of the only advertising I see these days..
Looks like my email inbox.
Years ago I was waiting for the usual monthly leaflet to come through, but nothing? My friend then pointed out to me that the company now has everything online basicaly on my phone. As they are saving £££'s every week in ink alone, and it's not as if everyone uses these leaflets with the discount codes on.
Ugh seriously though!
Get a sign saying "no junk mail, if you put junk mail in my mailbox im going to see its you on the camera. I also have a shotgun" works with my dad lol
That way you get no mail and a visit from the postal inspectors.