Only the GOOD Friday #6 ~ catalogues

I was at a loss about a post for ONLY THE GOOD FRIDAY until I made a visit to the blog of Empress Bee of the High Seas and her mention of the new phone books being out for distribution.

About a year ago (maybe 2 years ago), The Today Show profiled an organization called CATALOGUE CHOICE. At that time our mailbox was FULL of unwanted, unnecessary catalogues for everything from Arts and Crafts to zebra print clothing. Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decide what gets in your mailbox. Use it to reduce your mailbox clutter, while helping save natural resources.

It’s a very easy resource to use…

Step 1: Sign up.
Fill out our online registration form using your name and primary mailing address. Your contact information will only be used for the purpose of honoring your mail preference.

Step 2: Find your catalogs.
Find and set mail preferences for your catalogs, using the Catalog Choice search facilities. We'll then contact the catalog providers on your behalf, requesting that your preference be honored.

Step 3: See the results.
It can take at least twelve weeks to process your request, after which time your mail preference should be in effect. Results will vary depending on whether the company is actively participating in our service. All Participating Companies have pledged to honor your requests within 12 weeks. If you do continue to receive catalogs you requested not to, you can return here to let us know, and we'll follow up with the merchant.Catalog Choice is designed for your continued use. Upon receipt of additional unwanted catalogs, return here to set a mail preference for them. As a registered user, you'll also discover additional features related to managing catalogs at multiple addresses, adding new catalogs to our database, recording personal notes, and "going paperless".

My experience has been positive but it DOES take a while for your “eliminate this catalogue” to take affect. And there were companies that did not respond to the STOP SENDING request. For those companies, I called a phone number listed on the catalogue itself and requested them to stop sending. If they asked why, I just told them that anything I want or need I can access their business on line AND I don’t want to waste any more of our natural resources than we are already wasting. Some of the reps I talked with laughed when I said, “Save the trees, baby!!” And, ya know what? I am really proud of myself for doing that because I don't normally like confrontation with any person or organization who could send someone out to hunt me down for not liking their catalogues (yeah, I'm a bit paranoid). But these calls WORKED. My mailbox is so much happier now. And so am I.

Thanks for stopping by… have an ONLY THE GOOD FRIDAY… and a glorious weekend.