It’s a little known fact that I love J.Crew catalogs. I read them cover to cover, dog-ear cashmere sweaters I wish I could afford and fan them out on the coffee table like magazines until the day a sale coupon code hits my inbox. But somewhere in the process of moving to San Francisco and getting married in May, my name landed on just about every other catalog mailing list out there–Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Sur La Table, West Elm and Restoration Hardware just to name a few. For some reason I feel obligated to give them a quick flip-through before tossing them into the recycling bin. And I fully admit I secretly hope my name will fall off the mailing list if I ignore them long enough.
Let’s be honest though… that never happens.
Frustrated by the amount of clutter on our beautiful dining room table this morning, I decided to do something about it. I grabbed the stack of catalogs, picked up the phone and dialed the 800-number on the back of each one. In a matter of five minutes I kindly requested to be removed from seven different mailing lists. Seven! The process was painless and took almost no time.
I’ve decided to make this a regular habit when checking the mail now. Just a few minutes on the phone can save some serious trees, cut down on catalog clutter and spare you the guilt of tossing them straight into the recycling. Do it, and see how good it feels!
Catalogs: Feel wasteful just tossing them too? Have any you really enjoy looking through?
GREAT idea!
i absolutely hate anything that comes in the mail and try to do things paperless. I get these sale-paper from grocery stores all the time and feel bad throwing it away but just cant deal with it.
I don’t like the clutter of the catalogs or magazines (except my Runners World magazine LOL) but as a preschool teacher who uses them for cutting practice/looking for specific things I usually end up taking them to school (only if there are no “questionable” aka underwear/bra pics and if there are I tear them out LOL) to cut apart!
I use catalog choice, too!
Never knew such a thing existed – I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
Save the trees! yes!
Catalogs totally clutter up my dining room table too. I’ll have to call and ask to be removed from the list – had no idea it was so simple. Thanks!
I seriously need to do this– I receive so many things in the mail I never even look at!
I don’t get very many catalogs or things in the mail, but my Email? That is a whole other store! I did the same decluttering just the other day and unsubscribed from about ten different websites…I swear I can breath a little easier now! Ha!
My email is ridiculous too. That’s definitely next on my list of things to tackle!
That’s such a great idea. I never thought to do that. But I guess I secretly love getting mail, thus refusing to call and cancel any subscriptions ;)
I know. I admit I’ll miss the beautiful holiday catalogs but think the emails will do just fine. ;)
I started doing the same thing with email subscriptions! Suddenly I was signed up for TONS. It feels so good to remove myself off mailing lists!
Catalogs bother me too. I feel so wasteful just tossing them but never do anything to stop them from flooding my mailbox. Thanks for the tip – I’ll be making a couple of phone calls when I get home tonight!
I hate catalog clutter too! We have only a few that we tolerate, but they are gone within a week. Now, if I could just do the same with all my husband’s medical journals!
I feel the same about my dietetics journal – I get them via email AND mail. I think I’ll look into seeing if I can opt out of the paper version. Thanks for the idea!