Relative Something

I have taken a step of my own related to Cyndie’s transfer of residence out of our home, to an apartment in Boston. I created an account online with a service called Catalog Choice that will manage the termination of the mountain of junk mail that is delivered to our mail box.

One of the ways Cyndie managed her gift shopping while traveling across the country as a consultant was by way of mail-order catalogs. The companies were more than happy to accommodate her and shared her name and our address, far and wide. One thing I noticed soon after starting the process on the Catalog Choice site, was how inter-related some of the catalogs are that we receive. It is as if they form companies within companies, each one sending a different version of bait to wrest money from someone they know to be willing to shop by mail.

Of course, none of them make it easy to stop the catalogs from coming. Most are willing to work with organizations like Catalog Choice, but some do not, and require that extra steps be taken to contact them with the request by separate email to end the mailings. Fortunately, Catalog Choice does their best to assist the process and provides convenient ways to copy and paste into an email to the less-cooperative companies.

We have allowed the onslaught of catalogs to continue for so long that it will now be a monumental effort to stop all of them. Even after making our request known, most of them report that it will be 60 to 90 days before we can expect mailings to end.  I am a patient man, and will be waiting and watching to see it work. I will also continue to update the site each day after bringing in the mail, to assure I have entered every company that is sending catalogs here to Cyndie.  She won’t be needing them any more. She can do her gift shopping in the city of Boston now.