Letting Go of Excess

Consider your information intake vehicles and determine how you can pare down. On basic level, I suggest opening your mail over the waste basket; it's much easier to throw things
out with the waste basket below you.

If you receive a magazine or journal, go through it rapidly and take out the articles or items that look like they'll be of interest. Recycle the rest of the publication. Often, there's no need to hang on to the back issues of a publication. Much of the information is also on-line. In general pare down what you receive to only what you need -- reduce the volume as quickly and easily as possible.

Too Much Catalog Information

In this age of high-speed Internet connections, catalog companies in the U.S. annually mail more than 19 billion catalogs, consuming nearly four million tons of paper. The quality as well as availability of recycled paper has improved, but the majority of catalogers, among them J. Crew, J.C. Penney, and L.L. Bean, still use only virgin paper. What a waste, for everyone and everything.