I watch the get-organized shows. I read how-to tips in newspapers and magazines to organize, prioritize and free myself of clutter. The truth is that none of these useful strategies helps me deal with the rage I feel about receiving junk mail. I am drowning in junk mail.
I receive three to seven catalogs every day. When I call and plead to take me off a mailing list, I receive the catalog in duplicate. What is with those micro catalogs? Pottery Barn even has a separate catalog for kids.
I remember when catalogs were prized because they were the place where you could find anything from shoelaces to kitchen gadgets. Now catalogs are focused down to a narrow range of seasonal colors. It’s exhausting to hunt down the right catalog for a specific item. I’d prefer to have just one catalog annually, like a phone book.
In addition to the unwanted catalogs, I get offers several times a week for a new credit card. When I was a fully employed 20-something-year-old, I fell for these credit card invitations every time. I took it as some sort of compliment to be offered a credit card. I had a wallet full of cards.
Of course I could never keep up with the bills and finally simplified my life by sticking with one card, one bill, paid in full each month. I haven’t signed up for a card by mail in 10 years, but they keep asking every few days.
In the time before widespread identity theft I never thought much about my junk mail. But it’s no longer just a minor annoyance to see my name and address used by advertisers without my consent, it’s now the most annoying part of my day to open, sort and shred the contents of unwanted mail.
It is a paper war. I’ve watched three unsuccessful coups in the Paper War. First there was the promise of the Paper Reduction Act. The 1980s were the days of big hair and big hopes of paper reduction. The theory was the government was going to get the ball rolling. The rest of us would catch on. I need not elaborate on the dismal failure of this effort.
Then there was the hoopla of paper recycling. This caught on and there is absolutely no excuse not to recycle paper. So while paper recycling is widespread, some companies continue to send bills using those ridiculous plastic windows.
Plastic windows are a double irritation. It requires me to tear around the plastic to recycle the envelope. I want to call these companies and scream. Why do you make it so annoying to be your customer?
The third attempted coup was the insistence that having a personal computer was going to store everything in some paperless world. All it takes is one crash, one disc to fail, to make anyone print hard copies of anything they really can’t risk losing.
Three coups and there is plenty of paper still to file, save or shred.
Following the advice of the organizing gurus, I am equipped with a shredder, two file cabinets, a box for newspapers and a brown bag filled daily with the paper to recycle. I am organizing, sorting, shredding, cutting and storing till recycle day. You’d think some wonder kid would take notice and come up with a solution.
Everyone is in the Paper War. All sides are losing. Don’t we all have something better to do while we’re here?
I’m willing to accept a compromise. If you must send something, make it easy to recycle it. It leaves a better feeling about your company or charity.
Sarri Gilman is a freelance writer living on Whidbey Island. Her column on living with meaning and purpose runs every other Tuesday in The Herald. She is a therapist, a wife and a mother, and has founded two nonprofit organizations to serve homeless children. You can e-mail her at features@heraldnet.com.
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