Two months ago, our mailman, “Mr. John,” suggested that it might be time to buy a new mailbox.

“Why?” I asked him in surprise. Our mailbox is in perfect shape, doesn’t have a clematis blocking the flag or a trumpet vine obscuring the house number, and it is painted a shade of red to match our house.

“’Cause I can’t fit all these catalogues in your mailbox. It’s too small,” he replied kindly.

I looked down at the pile of glossy catalogues he had handed me and frowned. I had never ordered a single thing from most of the vendors in the heavy stack, so why did they keep sending me mail?

For example, why did Pottery Barn think I needed a catalogue every two weeks? Why did they believe I wanted a copy of their PB Teen catalogue? I’ve got two kids under five. Why did I receive a hunting supply catalogue? Or one filled with wigs?! You get the picture.

I was not going to buy a new mailbox. No sir. No ma’am. I was going to get rid of the catalogues and I told my mailman that within six months, I’d be receiving no more catalogues and that if all my neighbors followed suit, his carpal tunnel syndrome might ease up a bit.

How does one get rid of catalogues? It’s easier than you think. Visit Catalogue Choice at http://www.catalogchoice.org/#welcome to be removed from their mailing lists. It will take some time out of your day as you have to enter your personal info and the customer number from each catalogue. But you’ll soon be amazed by the sheer number you get each week. Since December, we’ve opted out of fifty-nine different catalogues.

Here’s the environmental impact (taken from Catalogue Choice’s website):

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers.

What’s the impact?

• Number of trees used – 53 million trees
• Pounds of paper used – 3.6 million tons of paper
• Energy used to produce this volume of paper – 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year
• Contribution to global warming – 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars
• Waste water discharges from this volume of paper – 53 billion gallons of water, enough to fill 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools

So what’s in your mailbox that you’d rather not have in there (besides your holiday credit card bill!)?