OH MY GOD THE PILES OF MAIL. You have ‘em. I have ‘em. They’re OUT OF CONTROL. We’re dealing with them, folks. We’re dealing with them. Those of you with paper shredders, fire ‘em up. No shredder? Get a box or shopping bag at the ready. Sort, file, shred, toss, DEAL WITH YOUR MAIL. This is a big job for many of us, so let’s go a half hour at a time (make sure your shredder doesn’t overheat, OK?), then take a break and go back in again.

NOW, BONUS CHALLENGE: to help make sure those piles don’t get out of control again, let’s get your name and address on these anti-junk mail lists:

OptOutPreScreen (for credit card offers)

DMAchoice (for other junk mail)

(both of these are links from the FTC website. I have used them both, but have no official endorsement or knowledge blah blah blah.)

BONUS BONUS CHALLENGE:

For those of you who don’t have a paper shredder, Google “community shred [your state/town/area]” and you can often find collection spots and dates where you can bring your boxes of stuff and they shred it, free, right in front of you. There’s probably one coming up soonish. Mark your calendar.