Buried by Catalogs? Fight Back!

The holiday season at the end of the calendar year is a time when many retailers troll for new customers by mailing catalogs. If this either adds stress to what is already a stressful time or tempts you beyond your strength, there are ways to regain control. Sean Sheehan of the New American Dream, an environmentally-oriented consumer group, encourages people to opt off mailing lists. Abacus Alliance, Direct Marketing Association and Mail Preference Service each can get households removed from direct mailing lists. A less drastic suggestion was made by Linda Rothschild of organization business Cross It off Your List. Linda recommended separating potentially useful from extraneous catalogs, or, more boldly, cutting out specific pages (or even copying phone numbers and web addresses only) and pitching the rest of the catalog.

For many people, Christmas (and related Hanakkuk and Kwanzaa) have had the more spiritual aspects lost in an orgy of gift-giving and breathless activity. If you wish to get back to the basics of these special days, one step in the process may be to reduce the presence of catalogs.