I just learned about a great way to reduce some of the clutter that comes into our homes in the form of phonebooks. In this day of internet accessibility, many people don't even use phonebooks any more. But they keep on arriving at our doorsteps, often making their way straight into the recycling bin, or gathering dust on the shelf.

 

Even for those of us who do still use them, we often receive many more than we need from various phone companies.

 

Here's a simple way to reduce the influx of phonebooks. Opt out. You can call the phone companies you don't want to receive books from, and remove your name from their mailing list. Here are their numbers:

 

AT&T/YellowPages (formerly SBC and Bell South):
1.800.792.2665
Verizon (Idearc):
1.800.888.8448
Dex:
1.877.243.8339
Yellow Book:
1.800.373.2324
 
For those of you living in Arizona or anyone who receives the Dex phonebook, you can opt out on-line, or decide which ones you want to receive by going to their website.
 
It is not immediately obvious how to do this on the site, so here are instructions:

 

Go to www.selectyourdex.com

 

Enter your zip code.

 

Enter your information as if you are requesting a phonebook and click on "proceed to receive your dex".

 

A page will come up with the options available. Look and decide which, if any, you would like to receive and then click on "proceed to receive your dex" again.

 

You will need to enter your contact information and then at the bottom you can choose how many directories you want to receive. Zero is one of the options.

 

Click on submit.

 

I like getting the Yellow Pages but not the local directory. I also prefer one company over another, so this was a great way to stop three books from being printed and then going straight into the recycling bin.

 

Some people don't use phonebooks at all, so if that's you, you might want to take a couple of minutes and help save some trees!