Forwarding mail
Executed correctly, this will work for you
January 2011
We have an arrangement with our neighbor, who is also our well adjusted contract mail carrier, to stuff our mail in an envelope or flat rate box as often as we call with an address for her to forward to- about every 2-3 weeks.
There are multiple options for mail forwarding, including changing your address to a mail forwarding service, holding it at the PO, changing address for vacation, etc.
We chose to use the USPS General Delivery service since it's free and temporary for us.
Getting the right address to forward your mail to from the post office is important. Not all offices accept general delivery mail, and if you send it to one that doesn't handle it, it may become nightmarish (like our Houston debacle blog).
Our suggestions are to:
1) select a small town that you'll be passing through in 5-7 days
2) call them to check that they do accept GD mail
3) have the mail forwarded by first class, or priority mail to that office. Our mail has always had a delivery confirmation service added to it, which was good when our package arrived at the Tucson Post Office (as shown online when it had an 'arrival at destination' scan) and they couldn't find it. We presented our number that showed it was there and they looked a little harder and found it. That service was not helpful in Houston, when the package didn't show up at the post office and it wasn't trackable while enroute and we ended up leaving the city with a 'return to sender' order at the post office in case it did arrive.
4) don't forget your photo ID to collect the mail- if your name is on it, your wife can not pick it up and vice versa. We suggest addressing it to "Mark or Kelly..."
If you're not too proud or you don't get embarrassing mail (we don't, so don't even make jokes, Bruce) perhaps your forwarding friend can go through the mail with you on the phone and select what to forward or just throw out the heavy junk mail on their own before sending (and you paying postage).
We pay for our postage to our friend so she is just volunteering the time to do the job, which we really really appreciate.
Nothing like paying the postage to get your bills! (because it includes a check sometimes, too)
1) select a small town that you'll be passing through in 5-7 days
2) call them to check that they do accept GD mail
3) have the mail forwarded by first class, or priority mail to that office. Our mail has always had a delivery confirmation service added to it, which was good when our package arrived at the Tucson Post Office (as shown online when it had an 'arrival at destination' scan) and they couldn't find it. We presented our number that showed it was there and they looked a little harder and found it. That service was not helpful in Houston, when the package didn't show up at the post office and it wasn't trackable while enroute and we ended up leaving the city with a 'return to sender' order at the post office in case it did arrive.
4) don't forget your photo ID to collect the mail- if your name is on it, your wife can not pick it up and vice versa. We suggest addressing it to "Mark or Kelly..."
If you're not too proud or you don't get embarrassing mail (we don't, so don't even make jokes, Bruce) perhaps your forwarding friend can go through the mail with you on the phone and select what to forward or just throw out the heavy junk mail on their own before sending (and you paying postage).
We pay for our postage to our friend so she is just volunteering the time to do the job, which we really really appreciate.
Nothing like paying the postage to get your bills! (because it includes a check sometimes, too)
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