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Government Blog Reveals How to Opt Out of Junk Mail

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GovGab

GovGab is a blog maintained by federal employees working for the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at the US General Services Administration. The purpose of Gov Gab is to demonstrate the usefulness, practicality, helpfulness, and vitality of federal, state, and local government information through real-life examples in the bloggers’ daily lives.

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Do you get too many catalogs in the mail? There was a time, back in the dark ages before the internet, that I was a committed catalog shopper. But those days are over, baby – I’m an online shopper now, and the catalogs are nothing but kindling to get the fire started. If I’m not ordering from the catalogs, why do they continue to arrive every day It’s like they’re hunting you down! Recently I ordered some shoes from an online retailer and a few weeks later a catalog filled with ugly, horrible shoes arrived in the mail. Look out, someone’s gotten wise to the fact that my family wears shoes!

When you think about it, unwanted catalogs are a terrible waste of resources. There’s the paper and the ink and distribution and the processing all for something that I’m going to throw directly into the recycle bin. I’ve finally decided to do something about this shameful waste in my life.

If you think you have no control over these mailings, you’re wrong. You can register your mail preferences with the Direct Marketing Association to be removed from (or added to) the mailing lists of your choice. Or call the number printed on the catalog and ask them to remove you from their list. I’ve been doing this a lot lately. As soon as the catalog comes in the mail, I just pick up the phone – it doesn’t take long, and I’ve never had one hassle me about it. They tell me that it takes a number of weeks until you’re really out of the catalog mailing cycle, but that’s ok – by summer I’ll be catalog free!

If you’re interested, there are ways to opt out of unwanted credit card offers, unsolicited email, and cell phone spam, too.