I once received an advertisement that was disguised as a jury duty summons. I got another that was printed on the inside of an empty box.

They will do anything to get you to open the envelope.

Shred them. Better safe than sorry...

The majority of these companies always include a "Business Reply Mail" envelope in their mailings (the postage on those is paid by the advertising company). I like to fill mine with the rest of their unsolicited mail (the papers w/o my name etc.) and stick it back into the mailbox to be sent to them on their dime.

If everyone did this they'd see their costs increase (postage and man power to open the envelopes and trash the contents), and perhaps slowdown on their mailings. The USPS would love the increase in monies as well.

Wow. Bubble wrap, that's a new one. You would think with the green movement and the down economy companies would not waste money on putting bubble wrap into their envelopes. I see someone gave the phone number to opt out, but you can also go to optoutprescreen.com to stop any pre-approved credit offers from coming to your mailbox.

I got that ad, too! And I was equally annoyed by the packaging. I did find a use for the bubble wrap, though. I considered giving it to the cats as a toy, but they scare easily. Instead, I stuffed it in with a paperback book I sold on Half.com. It didn't cover the whole thing, but the non-spine side was protected at least.

I completely agree with Scott. SHRED them! Then use the shreddies for packing material :) That way you aren't wasting anything.

It's way too easy for someone to open a card in your name w/out you ever knowing it anymore. Why take chances??

What I hate to receive in the mail is an invoice from some magazine company and it looiks like you have oredered the magazine and they want you to send them money.

I think I will start sending thenm back empty evcelopes!

I find reusing as much of my junk mail as possible curbs my irritation and gives me a cheap "thrill." First, I carefully open the envelope, remove the mail (without reading the ads) and see if any pages are blank on the back. I usually use a ball point pen to draw a diagonal line across the back so I don't mistake it for something important I want to keep. Those immediately go into the "use in the printer" pile next to my PC.

Then I remove any return envelope that doesn't have a prepaid postage stamp and put that in a second pile. Even if it has a return address or business name on it, a dab of white-out takes care of it and you can reuse it to pay bills or mail letters to your friends. They all know I'm too cheap to BUY envelopes when there are so many free ones begging for a new life.

Envelopes that have postage prepaid stamps on it go into a third pile. My kids have tons of stuff going back and forth to school and I always need quickie envelopes to throw coupons and stuff in, so I just write what it's for in magic marker and reuse.

Then, I see if there are any white areas large enough in the mail contents to cut into a 4.25" x 5.5" note paper on my paper cutter. We go through a TON of these for shopping lists, to do lists, reminder notes, whatnot. I also carefully open the original envelope and can usually squeeze one more note paper out of it.

Whatever is left over (or used for a notepaper and now beyond reuse) goes through the shredder and mixed into our soil. We have sterile, sandy soil that won't hold onto moisture, so we have a "pit" we move every year around 3 feet deep that we mix shredded paper into the bottom foot, then mix leaves and grass clippings back into the sand the top 2 feet. The paper helps the soil hold water until it decomposes, then it provides fertilizer for our garden. We also did this to lighten the soil when we lived in New Hampshre, which has clay-rock soil so heavy nothing will grow in it. Too heavy or too light ... shredded paper is a gardeners friend, and also good as a base bedding under the shavings if you have hampsters or chickens. If it's pretty and colorful, you can use color shreds as gift confetti, but NEVER use that shiney colorful paper they use for magazines in your garden as it's poisonous!!!

Thanks Citibank for all the useful free paper and, no, no matter how much more you send I will never sign up for your ripoff credit cards.

I take the offers apart. Return envelopes are used to put shopping lists on and coupons in, or turned inside out, reglued and reused, or if there's no writing on it reused as is. Any paper with a blank side is used to print out articles from the computer or as drawing paper for the kids. Blank sections are cut into smaller pieces for notes by the telephone. The rest is shredded and put into the compost pile, where it eventually becomes lovely stuff for the garden. If we get anything that resembles packing materials it's put in a box in the cellar and used when we send Christmas gifts for family (we're quite spread out).

I was wondering if you had tripped the capital one media followers with your post slamming capital one? I once had a post about capital one near a post about a boycott, and all of the sudden I started getting multiple search engine hits and bots. They never contacted me, but I thought it was pretty funny to watch them drool over my post.

Check out this site:

http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/bulkmailer/

I actually have a pile of bricks in my back yard that I've been too lazy to get rid of, and since I order a lot of stuff online, I've always got plenty of spare boxes. When life hands you lemons...