Sometimes external forces make living minimally a challenge. One such force is the postal service. Every day a government employee drops off a new batch of clutter — and ironically most of this clutter is about convincing us to buy more clutter.

Kramer trying to cancel his mail on Seinfeld

While cancelling your mail might be infeasible—if not impossible—there are a few steps you can take to significantly decrease the amount of junk mail you receive. None of these steps are immediate, and most require a bit of patience.

1. Opt-out of catalogs

The Data & Marketing Association is a trade organization that shares your data and mailing address with its member corporations. You can create an account on their website and pay $2 to opt-out of their lists.

2. Opt-out of credit and insurance offers

You can reduce your credit and insurance offers from Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion at OptOutPreScreen.com. They offer a 5-year opt-out online. Absurdly, you must print and mail a form to opt-out permanently.

3. Join the “National Do Not Mail List”

While not as official as it sounds, the National Do Not Mail List will remove you from DirectMail.com’s client corporations. The signup form is simple enough, as long as you feel comfortable giving your email address to a company whose primary business is spam.

Some of DirectMail.com’s clients

4. Say goodbye to the Yellow Pages

Photo via treehugger

This one may come as a surprise: you can actually say no to the Yellow Pages. YellowPagesOptOut.com will help you find your local distributor and provide instructions to opt-out. Easy!

5. Remove yourself from RedPlum

Next time you get a book of coupons in the mail, take a look at the sender. It’s most likely RedPlum. The good news: they make it painless to remove yourself from their list online. The bad news: if your mail carrier is as careless as mine, you’ll still receive RedPlum—just with someone else’s name and address.

Update: You can also opt-out of Share Local Media, which is used by Indochino among other companies.

6. See if this non-profit can help

CatalogChoice lets you keep track of your unsubscribes

CatalogChoice is a Berkeley-based nonprofit with a goal of ending junk mail. While their database is incomplete, they may be able to help with some of the larger offenders. At very least, it’s a noble cause worth supporting 🤗

7. Text photos of your mail to Mel

Mel is a little tool I’ve built with a simple value prop — unsubscribe from physical mail. Simply snap a photo of a piece of junk mail, capturing your address and the company name, and Mel will use a combination of automation and virtual assistants to contact the company and have you removed from their list.

There’s no app to install and no account needed. For now, your first 5 unsubscribes are free. After that, each unsubscribe will likely cost $1, dependent on user feedback.