What to do with mail if away for over a month

[Miwemo]

How do you handle your mail delivery at home when you are away for more than 30 days? We can arrange to have all important financial mail delivered to an email address.

 

The USPS does not hold mail for more than 30 days. We hate to impose on a friend or relative to pick it up for that length of time. We could have it forwarded to someone, but again, we hate to impose on anyone. For a long, land-based vacation, we could just have the mail forwarded to our vacation destination, but that won't work with a cruise ship.

 

Any ideas?

[kitty9]

Do you get a lot of mail? If not, why not rent a large PO Box. Have the local post office put your mail in the box. Or you can ask a neighbor to pick up your mail every day, and then you thank them with a nice gift card. It's not imposing to ask---all they can say is no. But really, you can't be afraid of imposing on a friend or relative if that's the only choice you have.

[Suitcasefull]

As long as you trust your neighbor, I'd ask them. We have someone come by the house each day to check on things and they bring in our mail. We never have mail stopped. Another suggestion: Try to have the neighbor check to be sure no one hangs a notice on your door to see how long it stays there. Easy trick for those who break into homes. Flyer stays on the door a day or two, probably no one home. Best to enlist the help of someone to make your house look at least like someone is checking. Enjoy the long trip!

[LHT28]

We ask the neighbour to take it in

They also water the plants & check on the house

we only have 2 houses on the street so having the house looked after is important for security reasons

Our house insurance policy also requires someone to check in the house at least every 72 hours incase of water damage etc....

[surfsidemary]

I keep a PO Box for just this purpose. The USPS will only hold mail for 30 days, but you can have mail addressed to your home forwarded to your post office box for up to 6 months, if I recall correctly. A friend unloads the PO box every week or so to be sure there's nothing that needs tending to. That's much less of an imposition. I have all my recurring bills automatically debited from my bank account.

 

Speaking of impositions, another thing I do for long trips is put a local fire/water restoration company on contract with authorization to respond to notification from the neighbors. I really can't expect friends or neighbors to take on the huge legal/financial responsibility of flood or fire damage. Can't let a huge mess sit there for a month or two either. The restoration people will come in and take care of mitigation pending my return. They work with my insurance company and the retainer doesn't cost me a penny. Peace of mind is priceless anyway.

[paul929207]

We hire a young kid from our neighborhood. Pay him about 50 cents per day.

[cherylandtk]

When the trip is only a few days over 30 we just have a friend pick up the mail for the first 3 or 5 days and then the mail hold order kicks in.

[OCruisers]

When the trip is only a few days over 30 we just have a friend pick up the mail for the first 3 or 5 days and then the mail hold order kicks in.

 

That's what we do too! :)

 

LuLu

~~~~~

[Kartgv]

The Post Office officially says 30 days but there is some flexibility. We were gone for 43 days this past spring for an Australia/New Zealand trip and the Post Office did hold our mail for the whole time. Try going in to your post office and ask for the manager - it can't hurt! Our regular mailman delivered all our mail to us in two big baskets the day after we got home. (P.S. We did remember our mailman at Christmas this year!)

 

We had figured out in advance what bills would come due while we were gone and set them up for payment (online banking) for what we thought the bill would be, plus a little extra cushion. It all worked very smoothly, with no surprises when we got home.

[dolittle]

Go to your post office in the the lobby there is a little yellow form to fill out at the end of the trip they drop it all off . It is a good service we have gone for 3 weeks no trouble.

[Miwemo]

We ask the neighbour to take it in

They also water the plants & check on the house

we only have 2 houses on the street so having the house looked after is important for security reasons

Our house insurance policy also requires someone to check in the house at least every 72 hours in case of water damage etc....

 

We shut off the main water valve to prevent water damage. So we take the plants to a friend or relative's house while we are gone. We have a neighbor who is a deputy sheriff who keeps an eye out for any unusual activity.

[Miwemo]

I keep a PO Box for just this purpose. The USPS will only hold mail for 30 days, but you can have mail addressed to your home forwarded to your post office box for up to 6 months, if I recall correctly. A friend unloads the PO box every week or so to be sure there's nothing that needs tending to. That's much less of an imposition. I have all my recurring bills automatically debited from my bank account.

 

Speaking of impositions, another thing I do for long trips is put a local fire/water restoration company on contract with authorization to respond to notification from the neighbors. I really can't expect friends or neighbors to take on the huge legal/financial responsibility of flood or fire damage. Can't let a huge mess sit there for a month or two either. The restoration people will come in and take care of mitigation pending my return. They work with my insurance company and the retainer doesn't cost me a penny. Peace of mind is priceless anyway.

 

We have our recurring bills on automatic debit, too. I like the idea of having a home restoration company on call in case anything happens. I will ask my insurance agent about this idea.

[Miwemo]

Go to your post office in the the lobby there is a little yellow form to fill out at the end of the trip they drop it all off . It is a good service we have gone for 3 weeks no trouble.

 

A three week trip has not been a problem for us either. The problem arises when the trip lasts more than 30 days.

[Miwemo]

I keep a PO Box for just this purpose. The USPS will only hold mail for 30 days, but you can have mail addressed to your home forwarded to your post office box for up to 6 months, if I recall correctly. A friend unloads the PO box every week or so to be sure there's nothing that needs tending to. That's much less of an imposition. I have all my recurring bills automatically debited from my bank account.

 

Speaking of impositions, another thing I do for long trips is put a local fire/water restoration company on contract with authorization to respond to notification from the neighbors. I really can't expect friends or neighbors to take on the huge legal/financial responsibility of flood or fire damage. Can't let a huge mess sit there for a month or two either. The restoration people will come in and take care of mitigation pending my return. They work with my insurance company and the retainer doesn't cost me a penny. Peace of mind is priceless anyway.

 

Why not just have the mail forwarded to your friend's house? Your friend would have to separate your mail from his mail daily rather than make a trip to the post office box weekly.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Our mail automatically goes into the garage.

Our neighbor picks up the newspapers.

Our plants are too large to haul to a neighbor -- so they do water them.

Even though we have an alaram system, our neighbor still comes into the house every few days and checks everything and waters the plants once a week.

I have a special checking account just for the utilities where the bills are paid automatically.

Our neighbors also have the names of furnace man, lawyer, plumber, ship, etc.

[Keith1010]

How do you handle your mail delivery at home when you are away for more than 30 days? We can arrange to have all important financial mail delivered to an email address.

 

The USPS does not hold mail for more than 30 days. We hate to impose on a friend or relative to pick it up for that length of time. We could have it forwarded to someone, but again, we hate to impose on anyone. For a long, land-based vacation, we could just have the mail forwarded to our vacation destination, but that won't work with a cruise ship.

 

Any ideas?

 

We have taken several cruises that have exceeded the 30 day length so I will share with you our experience.

 

1. Go to your local post office and speak with the postmaster. Some of them will hold your mail greater then 30 days. Other will not.

 

2. You can get a P.O. Box and forward your mail to it. It is a temporary move. All first class mail will be forwarded including Magazines. You need to check with the post office to be sure that if the box fills up they will hold the rest in the back. We were away for over 100 days and we just had a neighbor go up to the post office every three or so weeks so the box never would fill up. They were happy to do this for us and we did thank them with a nice gift.

 

3. More recently, we have forwarded our postal mail to a family member that lives relatively close to us. Like number 2 above you just fill out a temporary move.

 

If you go with these temporary moves allow time to put it into effect. There is about a one week period where you mail stops coming to your home and doesn't show up at the temporary address. We normally make the effective date ten days before we leave to be sure all works properly.

 

We've done this many times.

 

Keith

[flamomo]

I was gone for 37 days on a cruise, and told my mail delivery person about it well in advance. He had me make out a normal 30 day request card, and another card for the additional days. He held the card for the extra days and turned it in just before the 30 day one expired so the mail continued being held for the duration of my trip.

Apparently there are ways around the 30 day rule if you talk to the right USPS person!!

[Keith1010]

It all depends on your post office.

 

Some post masters will waive the rule and others will not.

 

You just have to ask and see what they say?

 

Keith

[johneeo]

We shut off the main water valve to prevent water damage.

 

Always.

[gerrmack]

How do you handle your mail delivery at home when you are away for more than 30 days? We can arrange to have all important financial mail delivered to an email address.

 

The USPS does not hold mail for more than 30 days. We hate to impose on a friend or relative to pick it up for that length of time. We could have it forwarded to someone, but again, we hate to impose on anyone. For a long, land-based vacation, we could just have the mail forwarded to our vacation destination, but that won't work with a cruise ship.

 

Any ideas?

We are away for 2 months. I made sure all credit cards and bill payments were made automatically.As for the rest, it can wait. We just have our mail delivered to a neighbor who puts in a box and I have many days of work once I get home. You might have to impose on someone and it really isnt that big a deal