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Overloaded with catalog

clutter?

by Maria Gracia Join our newsletter to be notified when the newest Statistics, Facts, and Figures are available. According to the Direct Mail Association, each year, about 100 million households receive 16.6 billion catalogs. That can result in a whole lot of catalog clutter indeed! Personally, I love receiving certain catalogs, especially around the holiday season. Even if I don’t always purchase from them, I always seem to get creative gift or decorating ideas. Here are 3 things I do to ensure my catalogs are helpful resources, and that they don’t turn into a pile of catalog clutter: 1. Whittle down the amount: As I receive catalogs in the mail, for those catalogs that I know are not my style and/or that I’ll never buy from, I call or email those particular companies and ask them to remove me from their list. 2. Keep current: For those catalogs I do enjoy receiving, I only keep the most current issue, and recycle the rest. I also browse through the catalogs each evening while I’m watching TV. If I know I’m not buying anything from it, I recycle it immediately after. 3. Snip and Save: As I’m browsing through my catalogs, I always keep a scissor nearby to clip the items I may purchase. I then tear the back page of the catalog off and staple it to these snipped items I’ve saved--this way I know where to buy them from, if I wish to, later. These are then saved in a “Shopping” file folder until I’m ready to make my final buying decisions. Back to Organizing Statistics, Facts, and Figures Index