For residents of Austin, Texas, you probably receive junk mail in your postal mailbox, and it's coming from several different companies. But you can make the junk mail stop with a few minutes of phone calls (one call per company). Legally, each company must honor your request to stop sending junk mail. By the way, if you have made a request and waited the required period of time, but the junk mail is still showing up from that particular company, you might be able to file harassment charges against them. Call 311 (the non-emergency number for the Austin Police Department) and ask if they can help.

• Junk mail company #1 - Austin Statesman

  About: the Statesman sends weekly bulk mailings containing local advertisements for things like what's on sale at HEB. It doesn't matter if you subscribe to the Statesman or not, they send their junk to every street address in the entire city, and they won't stop until you tell them to.

  To remove yourself from their list: Call (512) 445-3500 and ask to speak with Bill Ellis. Whether you get Bill, his voicemail, or somebody else, here's what you need to say: "I do not want to receive advertisements from the Statesman. Please remove my address from your list. My street address is ________ and my zip code is 787__. Thank you.". They say it will take 1-2 weeks for the junk mail to stop.

• Junk mail company #2 - ADVO

  About: these guys are based in Dallas, and they're responsible for another big pile of bulk junk mail, including the little flyers about missing children. You'll be able to identify any of their junk mail when you find the fine print saying "ADVO" and a 214 phone number.

  To remove yourself from their list: Call (888) 241-6760 and ask to be removed from their mailing list. They'll want your zip code, street number, and address, in that order. They say it will take 6-8 weeks for the junk mail to stop.

• "Complimentary" newspapers from Austin Statesman

  About: you don't read the Statesman, you don't subscribe to it, and you don't want it delivered to your house (free or not). Unfortunately for you, the Austin Statesman doesn't care whether you want their newspaper or not, and they'll deliver them to your house several times a week. Thanks for the trash, guys.

  To remove yourself from their list: this might not be the best solution, bit I sent email to editor@statesman.com and asked to be removed from their complimentary newspaper delivery list. They'll want your name and street address, and the changes should take effect pretty much immediately.

  What to do if they keep delivering newspapers: speaking from experience, the Statesman is liable to start delivering newspapers again, even after you've requested they stop (for me, there was a 2 week break before the newspapers started showing up again). So what do you do? This is where your friendly Austin Police Department comes in: call 311, explain that you've requested to be removed from the list yet they continue throwing unwanted garbage on your private property, then ask to open a harassment case against the Statesman. Perhaps it seems a bit over-the-top, but come on, after you've asked them to stop throwing newspapers on your lawn, what the hell else can you do?