DMAChoice.org, a tool offered by the Data & Marketing Association, lets you remove your name and address from a number of these lists. After registering an account and paying a $2 fee, you can unsubscribe from entire categories of mail — like catalogs and advertisements — or unsubscribe from specific catalogs you don’t want. Catalogchoice.org is a free alternative, but only allows you to unsubscribe from catalogs one at a time — you can’t remove yourself from entire lists.

Note that this won’t unsubscribe you from catalogs from businesses that you’ve been a customer of — only ones where you’re a “prospect.” If you’ve actually purchased a product from a company, you’ll have to visit their website and unsubscribe from their catalog manually through customer service.

Lastly, in order to unsubscribe from those preapproved credit and insurance offers, you’ll need to sign up for OptOutPrescreen.com, a service offered by the major credit bureaus. You’ll need to give them some information, including your Social Security number, but don’t worry — it’s a legitimate service, recommended by the Federal Trade Commission. You can opt out of these offers for five years online, or you can mail in a form to opt out permanently.

Avoid Mail Intended for Previous Residents

Not everyone is great about changing their address when they move. When you move to a new house or apartment, you’ll probably get occasional mailings intended for the previous residents — but those should slow down eventually. If you keep getting them months or years later, however, you have a few options.

First, resist the temptation to throw these away. It won’t solve the problem, and in some cases it could even be illegal. Instead, cross out all bar codes on the envelope (so it doesn’t get automatically sorted), write “Return to sender: Recipient moved” on the front and stick it back in the mailbox. This will send it back to the Post Office and hopefully back to the original sender, so they won’t keep mailing stuff to your address.

If things are really bad, you can fill out a change of address form for the previous occupant with “Left No Forwarding Address” in place of the new residence, or file a complaint with the postmaster. Hopefully, in most cases, this won’t be necessary.

This Won’t Stop Everything, but Your Mailbox Will Feel Lighter

After going through the above steps, you won’t necessarily see a decrease in junk mail right away. Almost all of these mailings will take a few weeks or a few months to stop, since they’ll have already been prepared ahead of time. But over time, you should see the junk mail slow to a trickle.

Not everything is so easily stopped, unfortunately. You may still get mailings for local businesses, charities you’ve donated to or other mailings that don’t use the above lists. For the remaining stragglers, sort them into a separate pile (instead of throwing them away) and try contacting each sender directly. You can also download Paper Karma, which will let you take a photo of the mailing with your smartphone, and then attempt to do all the unsubscribing work for you.