I love buying online, but the one downfall is being put on catalog lists. Seems my address has been sold to a lot of vendors selling everything from window blinds to cheesy pet toys.

I went away for two weeks last year and the post office had to give me a box to carry my mail home. 75% were unwanted catalogs. Sometimes more than one from stores like Victoria’s Secret and Pottery Barn.

Enter Catalog Choice. It is a free service - you list all of the catalogs you’re getting that you don’t want and they tell the merchants to take you off their lists. Upfront the site makes clear some changes will take months. Take it from me, it is well worth the wait.

I began dilligently saving the back page of every catalog and entering its information into Catalog Choice last fall. Sometimes I went back to the site to tell them when I received a catalog I’d already requested not to get. The site requests this, it’s part of their process.

Last month, I went away for a week and picked up my mail the next Monday. I could fit the stack in my purse! I was thrilled, and even more knowing that I was saving the environment in the process. Merchants too have something to be gained. They have appreciative customers, save on costly paper processing and mail, and can develop very specific opt-out forms so you choose what catalogs you do want to receive. I like that.

Too bad Catalog Choice doesn’t have a side venture for mail from charities and credit cards. I’m searching for one!

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