US thing I'm guessing? Here in Sweden, we don't get much spam mail in the first place but you simply put a "no ads" sign on your mailbox and then only get the stuff you need. The 8 years I've lived in my current apartment I've gotten like 3 things that weren't bills and stuff I need.

In France you just put a sticker or something on your box saying "no ads" and that's it, no more ads posted. It really is quite a bunch of paper every week, too!

In the US you just shoot the people that try to put ads in your mailbox. Not a lawyer tho so idk. shrug

In Germany, you can just put a little sign on your letterbox that tells the post person to not give you any free newspapers or mail.

Only ads I've gotten in years where the ones directly addressed to me, and that's like every few months from one of two slightly old fashioned firms, and tends to include a voucher, so that's something.

A tip if you're in the USA, look at the top right of envelope. If it says "presorted standard" it's garbage.

What's crazier is that I get 5lbs of junk mail regularly, but if I go to the post office and try to mail a 1 lb envelope it's like $40

USPS says you can write "Refused" on your mail to refuse it. I've heard that can possibly stop them from sending you more.

If you wanted to actually opt-out from the largest mail advertising organization's lists though, you have to pay them. Good 'ol capitalism.

I wish they would get rid of all mail except for person to person written letter, checks made out to me, and packages I've ordered. Everything else is garbage.

Come to think of it, that's pretty much email, too.

75% automated notifications or stuff that isn't quite spam but you don't care about

23% spam

2% stuff that you better not miss

Just finished my jury duty and it was a wild ride

Other jurors shocked me with how antaganostic they were to the plaintiff for asking for compensation and punishment for a nursing home's negligence. We ended up awarding money for clear negligence- specifically for injuries (physical and financial) and pain, but it was a struggle to find agreement from them for clear facts that neither side disputed (and verbally acknowledged this nondispute). When it came time to answer if the doctor was negligent in not consulting a wound physician, they didnt agree because the nursing home policy said "do it if wound doesnt improve in 2-4 weeks". Wound got worse over the 5-6 weeks they waited and by the time they did, she was so bad from not participating in therapy (due to being laid on the wound constantly and the ensuing pain) that she had had to be put on hospice and died from a lack of dialysis.

Because they didnt find the violation of her rights (violations were agreed to) to be reckless or willful (such as by understaffing or poor care), we could not award additional damages to punish the nursing home

I take solace in the fact that it gave the family closure for a 6 year lawsuit

I was taught as a child to open plain envelopes first. Checks, credit cards, and other important stuff are put in boring envelopes.

I worked for a CC company and when we mailed checks to customers we told them "This check will come in a plain white envelope." And the amount of people who thank me for letting them know because they might have thrown it away.

As someone who rents so much of my mail is from past residents which I have told them do not live here, or local ads (literally several magazines per month) which I can't opt out of cause it's EDDM, that I straight up just stopped collecting it. Any small packages that would have gone in the box go on top of the cluster and any letters I received are stuffed into the box and I pick them out if I happen to notice I'm missing something.

Anyone that really needs my attention would call me or email me shrug

Junk the junk

@The_Picard_Maneuver Here in the UK, sure we get Spam mail but there's red labels and stuff for really important mail from the government and things and most of the time it's just telling you to pay for a TV licence that you wouldn't use as you don't pay for live TV and just watch YouTube.

Since we're talking about mail:

What do I do with my old bills/insurance statements/etc? I have executive dysfunction and I just can't find a simple method that works for me. It all ends up in a pile and every few months I pitch the whole thing and promise myself to do better next time. Perhaps there's an app, website, or program I should just digitize them into?

For me it's 99 spam things and one Manila folder. It's always the VA noticing I exist again and deciding I haven't been fucked with enough recently.