How To Stop Junk Mail 4 Free

Several websites offer to help stop your junk mail: you can spend around ten bucks for a do-it-yourself package, or you can pay a monthly fee for provided services. However, if you are willing to put in the time and effort, you can stop your junk mail yourself, for free. There's a great list of instructions at the site for Obvious Implementations Corporation, obviously.com.

Why worry about junk mail? Not only is it a daily hassle, it drains both the economy and the environment:

1. 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water are used to produce junk mail each year;
2. 250,000 homes could be heated with one day's supply of junk mail;
3. Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year;
4. Approximately $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of junk mail annually; and
5. Transportation of junk mail costs about $550 million per year.

Interesting read: "A Declaration of Independence from Junk Mail," by Donella H. Meadows, adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.

Sources: University of Oregon; nativeforestnetwork.org; charityguide.org; ecologicalmailcoalition.org.

Free Pedometer - Thru 01/31/07

Over at MyHeartNow.Com, you are rewarded with a free pedometer if you take the time to answer a short survey at their site.

Compare this to the ones at Walmart for $15.00 or more. The offer is good through the end of this month - the pedometers are provided by Pfizer.

And, about that walking you're going to be doing: while the pedometer will guessestimate your steps/mile, you should know that one mile is the same as 5280 feet. While everyone's stride is unique, unless you're Tim Duncan or Bindi Erwin your stride is going to cover about 2.5 feet, or 2112 steps. (My pedometer is right around this: one mile is shown at 2102 steps.)

For lots more info on walking, check out thewalkingsite.com, aarp.org, and walkinginfo.org.

Finally, this post would not be complete without including a jump to Thoreau's essay -- Walking, which is such a treasure. Many things to ponder there while you're taking step after step:

"But the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours — as the swinging of dumb-bells or chairs; but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day. If you would get exercise go in search of the springs of life. Think of a man’s swinging dumb-bells for his health, when those springs are bubbling up in far off pastures unsought by him. Moreover, you must walk like a camel which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveller asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study, she answered 'Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.'"

Happy Birthday to Everyday Simplicity!

Today marks one year of blogging here at Everyday Simplicity! While a back injury did curtail daily posting over the summer and a workload conflict did impact the Fall, hopefully things are back on track for the new year.

There is a website now, to organize all the entries, over at everydaysimplicity.net. This was a must, since the index in the left-hand margin of the blog got overloaded by March.

During the first year, I made a conscious decision to refrain from personal commentary on this blog, or at least keep things to a minimum. In this new year, that may change. After all, sharing what we're all learning is part of the simple life, right?

Thanks for all the comments and the emails - it's great to learn from you as well as find out there are others out there who share the interest, or perhaps the passion, of living this simpler way.