Fighting Clutter

I've spent some of this afternoon attempting to de-clutter our lives. One way I am doing that is by dealing with the incoming stream of mail. I don't know if other folks know about some of the services out there, so I thought I'd share. Here's what I did today:

I signed up for OptOutPrescreen.com which is supposed to stop credit card companies from sending "pre-approved" credit card offers. The site is legit, and is actually some sort of unholy alliance of the various credit reporting bureaus. Basically, by signing up though their website, you can -- for 5 whole years -- keep Experian and TransUnion and the other bureaus from selling your info to companies that want to send out credit card offers. Seems like a good thing.

I also signed up for an account at DMAchoice.org which is yet another unholy alliance of direct marketers. Through their site, you can get off catalogue lists, direct mail offers, and magazine offers. They also offer an E-mail Preference Service that's supposed to limit your e-mail junk mail, but I have a feeling that's a lost cause. I'm guessing that former high-ranking official in Nigeria is still going to ask me to wire him some money in exchange for millions. I'm still waiting for the last one to come through.

If you haven't already, you should sign up for the Federal Do Not Call list, although I have to say, it doesn't seem to work very well. We still get calls.

So by sitting in front of the computer, I was able to avoid doing any actual de-cluttering of the house. Nice.