Day 142 - Plugging Up The Holes

Shutting the Door on Unsolicited Flyers

Our mailbox continues to get more than its fair share of unsolicited junk mail, despite all my efforts to stop it from coming. However, there is another problem I have with our mailbox which is the little cubby hole that lies beneath the box itself.

You see, I live in a subdivsion that requires my mailbox be provided by the community association. The association, in their infinite wisdom, felt that a cubby hole beneath the box would be a great way for neighbors to keep in touch, or for the HOA to send out postage-free notices. And if that were how it really worked, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But that isn't how it works.

Instead, it is stuffed on a bi-weekly basis with flyers from damn near every local company that cannot afford "real advertising". The result is an average of 16 pieces of paper advertising companies that I have no desire to buy from. Most of them are real estate agents, painters and cleaning services that I either don't need, can't afford, or just don't care enough to utilize their services.

Well, it is a problem no more. I just went out and filled it with a couple of 2x4 scraps hubby had laying around in the garage and Voila! Advertising hole plugged, flyers avoided, HOA-approved mail station still in compliance.


Savings:

Sixteen sheets of paper per week, 64 sheets per month, 832 sheets per year. If my whole subdivision did this, we would be saving well over two MILLION sheets of paper per year. That's a lot of trees. Two-hundred seventy six, to be exact.


Difficulty Level: 1 out 5

I put this one off for a long time because I thought it would be difficult. I imagined having to measure and cut a piece of plywood and then nail it over the opening. Then paint the wood to match the HOA-approved color scheme. But now that I'm jogging outside, I've noticed a few other like-minded folks had plugged up their cubbies with 2x4 scraps. Sometimes, it pays to think outside the box. Or, in this case, inside the box.