Monday, June 4, 2007

Spring Cleaning

Wouldn’t it be nice to open your mailbox and find only the mail that you want? Have you ever fantasized about throwing a yard sale but you either A. Don’t have a lawn or B. Don’t feel like haggling all weekend over the cost of your old desk or hula girl coffee mug? Well, thanks to two organizations, a free ad and a small fee will allow you to get rid of both the unwanted junk that arrives at your home on a daily basis and the unwanted junk that you’ve been accumulating for decades.

According to 41pounds.org, “The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year.” The organization offers a service that costs $41 and last for 5 years which will:

• Save time by eliminating 80-95% of your daily junk mail
• Save trees – 100+million trees destroyed annually for junk mail
• Save water used producing and recycling junk mail
• Reduce global warming – energy used for producing junk mail
• Support your favorite charity – they donate when you sign up

Now that your junk mail is taken care of, let’s turn our attention to that old printer. Freecycle.org is “a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns."

Each Freecycle group is moderated by a volunteer. You can follow the links on Freecycle’s website to find the group closest to you. If you can’t find a group near you, you can start your own group by following the instructions on their site. It’s a great way for anyone from college students to bi-coastal wanderers to both find and discard those precious home goods.

1 comment:

Andrew Frishman said...

So glad that you are talking about fighting junk mail (its one of my huge pet peeves). . . I am surprised that it is only 41 pounds of Junk mail? Even with me calling/mailing the companies and asking to be removed from their mailing lists, I still get piles. . .

Do you have an idea about how many trees would not have to be cut down if Americans could reduce their junk mail by half?