Separate home-business advertising from personal mail

How to separate and manage home-business advertising

1. Sort each piece by the name on the label. Mail addressed to the business name or a business title is business mail, and mail addressed to you personally is personal. If both names appear, work out which relationship prompted the mailing.
2. Request removal only for business advertising you are authorized to handle as the owner or operator. Do not submit a request for a piece addressed to another person at the same address without that person's agreement.
3. Photograph the label of each unwanted piece so the sender and the addressee name exactly as printed are visible. Submit each separately, since a business-name label and a personal-name label at one address may be different mailing records.
4. Keep any tax correspondence, professional license renewals and government notices that arrive for the business, even if they look like form letters. If you are unsure about a piece, hold it out of the removal batch.

Privacy at a shared address

Keep business correspondence you still need in a separate pile from promotional mail. A request to one advertiser does not update your business address everywhere. If your wider goal is to change where the business receives mail, work through the relevant registrations and accounts directly, recording each confirmed change.

Track new sign-ups

Each time you register for a trade account, directory listing or supplier relationship with your home address, make a note of it. When advertising follows, you will know which registration probably prompted it.

Instructions for the next step

• The main guide to stopping junk mail
• How Junk Mail Magic handles your information