Simple Steps Can Cut the Clutter

Junk mail, spam, telemarketers can pile up. Here’s how you can dig your way out.

The phone rings right at dinner time.

Important mail gets lost in a sea of junk.

You can’t check email without sifting through spam.

You could wallpaper the kitchen with all of those credit-card offers.

It’s hard to remain organized. It’s almost impossible when there’s so much clutter.

You could build a new wing to your house to hold all the junk. Better yet, you can follow a few simple tips and help keep extra clutter out of your life.

The Do Not Call list

YOU’RE APPROVED!! (…and now annoyed) Tired of receiving those pre-approved credit card offers in the mail? You can “Opt-out” by calling toll-free: (888)-5-OPTOUT (888-567-8688) You can also register online. This service is operated by the major credit reporting agencies.

 “You have won an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii! Just give us your Social Security Number for verification.”

 “Please donate to the Injured American Heroes Fund. Just give us a credit card number.”

Fraudulent telemarketers will try to sell you anything – investments, credit cards, vacation packages. Or they will ask for donations to phony charities.

They’ll call all day and night. In turn, they steal over a billion dollars from consumers every year.

If you don’t want calls from telemarketers, you can register your phone number (including cell phones) on the National Do Not Call List. You can also call toll free (888) 382-1222.

The Do Not Call list is operated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Registration is effective within 30 days and is good permanently. Telemarketers should not call you after you have been registered for 31 days.

Please see our information page for more information on telemarketers.

Junk mail list

Sure, it might come in handy if you need a carpet cleaned or 50 cents off a combo platter at that new restaurant. But mostly, junk mail just leaves mess. It fills up mailboxes, then dining-room tables, then trash cans. It makes day-to-day organization more difficult.

But you don’t have to put up with all of it.

Many of the companies who send you advertising in the mail are members of Direct Marketing Association (DMA). You can register with them to be removed from their member’s mailing lists.

You can register by mail or online for a $1 charge. By mail, write a letter or
print their form. Be sure to include your name, address and signature. Send to:

Mail Preference Service
PO Box 282
Carmel, NY 10512

Please see our information page for more information on stopping junk mail.

Spam

If you’re reading this, you probably get email. And you certainly have to deal with those unwanted messages in your inbox.

Spam can come in many disguises. It could claim you won a foreign lottery, or can share in an overseas inheritance. Maybe it’s a money-making scheme or an illegal seller of medicines.

A simple rule: if you don’t know who sent an email message, don’t open it. The FTC gives you the chance to go one step further.

It works like this. If you get spam email that you think is deceptive, forward it to spam@uce.gov.

The FTC uses this database to pursue law-enforcement actions against those who send spam.