What do you do with your mail?

[tip]

We have been on over two dozen cruises including a few that have been almost two weeks, but this year we have decided that we shall not take another full New England winta!;)

 

We are going to drive both to and from Florida and after our cruise, rent a condo for four weeks. Thus we shall be away from home for somewhere between six and seven weeks. In the past, we have always filled out a form to have our mail held at the post office and we pick it up upon return home. I have a form in front of me and it says that they will only hold the mail for thirty days. I am not so sure that I want to have it forwarded to the condo rental as we shall be in transit or on the ship for almost half of the time.

 

What do other folks do? I must admit that I haven't checked with our local post office to see if the thirty day rule is hard and fast.

[GeeDunk]

We have been on over two dozen cruises including a few that have been almost two weeks, but this year we have decided that we shall not take another full New England winta!;)

 

We are going to drive both to and from Florida and after our cruise, rent a condo for four weeks. Thus we shall be away from home for somewhere between six and seven weeks. In the past, we have always filled out a form to have our mail held at the post office and we pick it up upon return home. I have a form in front of me and it says that they will only hold the mail for thirty days. I am not so sure that I want to have it forwarded to the condo rental as we shall be in transit or on the ship for almost half of the time.

 

What do other folks do? I must admit that I haven't checked with our local post office to see if the thirty day rule is hard and fast.

 

What I do is fill out two cards.

 

One card say for three weeks.

 

And, the other card for three/four weeks.

 

Then, talk to my Mail Carrier and explain what I am doing.

 

Mark the cards with two start dates.

 

Never had a problem.

[NMLady]

We have taken cruises that have kept us away from home longer than a month.

Our neighbor picks up our mail for us each day and puts it in a box we give her. When we get home she gives us the box and we give her a useful souvenir, such as spoon rest or hot pads or canvas tote or shade hat that we bought as a Thank You.

[iancal]

We have a similar challenge-especially since it is not uncommon for us to be away for 2-3 months at a time.

 

We have changed everything possible to on line billing vs paper. Where possible and practical we moved some to automatic payments by credit card or bank withdrawal. This took care of most of the important items. The only hard mail of any importance is some quarterly statements. This was not a big step for us as we do most of our business on line. The benefit is that it really cuts down on the shredding or the recycle bin. We also pay some things in advance where appropriate.

 

We have a neighbour or our son check on the condo/house (when we had it). It was important from an insurance perspective that someone physically enter and check the home every so many days. Most especially in the winter when the furnace can malfunction or pipes freeze.

[WatchHill]

After a few episodes of missing mail due to whatever was going on at the local post office, I no longer trust them to keep my mail while I'm away. Our town no longer sorts and handles delivery, so anyone requesting a "hold" has to go to an adjacent town where a larger post office does the work.

 

Thankfully, we have wonderful neighbors who check out house, pick up the mail, put out the trash as needed. Just in case a property or auto excise bill arrives, I leave a couple of pre-signed checks that they use. When our neighbors are away for a month or so, we look after their house, too. I once took a neighbors' cat for three weeks and when they returned, the cat refused to leave our house!

 

Yes, last winter was brutal here in SE MA. The icicles were huge, and the snow blower was in use every other day. Another of our neighbors was away in FL from December to April, and a few of us looked after their property - their home sustained significant damage and we called them in FL, then set up a time for their insurance company to look at the property.

 

I have friends in town who forward all their mail to their seasonal home. Whatever your comfortable with.......

 

We were in Europe in May, and when we got home the fridge had milk, juice, fruit, yogurt and a big breakfast Danish was on the kitchen table thanks to our neighbors. The lawn was mowed and the irrigation system was up and running.

 

Holding mail beyond 30 days will depend on your local PO and carrier - as long as it's the same carrier every day.

 

Darcy

[CruisingAlong4Now]

I have all the mail forwarded to my sister. She throws out obvious junk mail, sorts out the bills and such. Once I am at my FL condo, she overnights the important stuff to me weekly for the several weeks I am there. Two weeks before I return home, I revoke the mail forwarding and initiate a mail hold. Voila.

 

Not all bills are payable online, so I need the actual bill to ensure I won't be late in paying. Having a neighbor put your mail in a box for more than one billing cycle could result in late payments. There is also the oddball thing like a jury summons.

 

Also, there are mail services who will scan all your mail and make it available online. The is useful if you have no address to which you can forward mail. For example, when we trek for 3-4 months. Search the Internet for mail forwarding services.

 

Also, don't forget to install a freeze alarm to alert you to unexpected low temps. Ours is set up to call our cell phone if house temps fall below 45 degrees or if we lose electricity. We also have the faucets trickle to forestall frozen pipes.

Edited August 15, 2015 by CruisingAlong4Now

[Krazy Kruizers]

Our mail goes directly into the garage. Our neighbor checks it from time to time (along with the house) -- we do have an alarm system.

We have a special checking account that all our bills are automatically taken from -- so no worries about overdue bills.

If something does come via mail that our neighbors think needs attention, they know how to get hold of us.

[paul929207]

We just pay a neighborhood child to collect it until we return.

[cb at sea]

I don't like having a neighbor pick up mail...the potential for lost mail, or for them forgetting is great.

 

Having the post office "hold" it is best. I can't believe they won't do 2 concurrent "holds"..simply ask the carrier!

[gwsster]

We have taken cruises that have kept us away from home longer than a month.

Our neighbor picks up our mail for us each day and puts it in a box we give her. When we get home she gives us the box and we give her a useful souvenir, such as spoon rest or hot pads or canvas tote or shade hat that we bought as a Thank You.

 

This reminded me that we asked our adult daughter who lives IN the house to pick up the mail and put it on the counter while we were on our cruise for a week. She picked us up at the airport and in conversation said there wasn't much mail this past week. I thought this odd as we get lots of junk mail and it was the first of the month when our bills come in.

We pulled in the drive way from said cruise and I see from the car an 18" by 20" box FULL of mail sitting on the porch. She came in through the garage and never "saw" the box on the porch. She never bothered to pick up the mail during the week and thought that on Friday what was in the box was all we got. DUH the small locked box would only hold a day or 2 worth of mail. Needless to say I put a mail hold on the next vacation. On our last vacation she promised to pick up the mail and she did. Momma was not happy! YIKES.

[Husky61]

I have had the Post Office hold and forward my mail for two months at a time. never had a problem.:)

[Flatbush Flyer]

We have been on over two dozen cruises including a few that have been almost two weeks, but this year we have decided that we shall not take another full New England winta!;)

 

 

 

We are going to drive both to and from Florida and after our cruise, rent a condo for four weeks. Thus we shall be away from home for somewhere between six and seven weeks. In the past, we have always filled out a form to have our mail held at the post office and we pick it up upon return home. I have a form in front of me and it says that they will only hold the mail for thirty days. I am not so sure that I want to have it forwarded to the condo rental as we shall be in transit or on the ship for almost half of the time.

 

 

 

What do other folks do? I must admit that I haven't checked with our local post office to see if the thirty day rule is hard and fast.

 

 

Beyond moving to electronic bill paying and e-subscriptions and registering for "no junk mail," which will reduce the volume of items, what to do about the rest of the mail really depends a lot on where you live.

 

We are in an urban area where all sorts of delivery people (USPS, newspaper, UPS, etc) vary or change on a regular basis.

We would never do anything that suggested we are away. Thus, no holds or notices that would so clearly state to delivery folks that we will be gone. Neighbors pick up our stuff and we do the same for them.

 

Perhaps rural folks have more established delivery personnel and could use holds. But, doing it in any urban area is such a bad idea.

[LHT28]

I get the neighbour pick up ours & leave in the house when they do their check on the house

plus shovel the snow or cut the grass

Our insurance policy requires someone physically check the house every 72 hrs incase the furnace breaks down or pipes leak etc...

 

We have gone away from 2 wks to 3 mths

I also know what bills to get my neighbour to look for so she can email me & I can pay them while away

most I can check online but the house taxes & water bill usually come while we are away for the winter

[Philob]

I would suggest having someone check the house periodically. I've had clients over the years who go away and return with the house flooded.

 

Most recent was this year, the supply line to the master bath toilet broke. Water was running at least 3 weeks; the entire lower floor had to be gutted and all their possessions tossed. The water damage people tried to save as much as they could, but in the end the costs exceeded the value.

 

Another was a vacation home up at "the lake"; last visited MLK weekend and returned President's Weekend for sking; water pipe froze in the upper bath. The neighbors next door didn't know water was going out the front door as it was flowing under the snow.

 

The entire house was gutted and almost condemned (mold) by the county.

[snowskier]

We turn the main water valve to the house off -- eliminates potential broken pipes / flooding issues. Unless someone checks every few hours a broken pipe will damage the house well before the occasional check is done by a neighbor or friend.

 

We forward mail to a rented box at the UPS Store when the time frame with the post office doesn't work out. If we decide we want our mail, we just have to call the UPS store, give them an address and the mail is packed up in an envelope and sent to us.

 

Since you are spending time in a condo, I assume you have an address and this would work for you. If the condo is in the US mail can be sent to general delivery to the local post office and you can pick it up there as well. We have to do this as we live in an area of the US that does not have rural mail delivery (no mail delivery people, no mail boxes).

 

Done this many times -- it has never been lost, never not shown up.

[Keith1010]

If we are away greater than 30 days we do a temporary forward of our mail and send it to our daughter who lives about one hour fro us. We've done this for years and it works very well.

 

Keith

[Shmoo here]

We're lucky in that 2 of our kids are still living at home. So we can pretty much take whatever length trip suits us.

 

For those occasions in the past, when the whole family traveled, we've either just had our mail held at the post office, or had one of the neighbor kids (there's usually one middle/high school aged one around needing a little extra cash) pick up the mail & daily paper and hold them for us.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Shmoo here

[navybankerteacher]

I have had the Post Office hold and forward my mail for two months at a time. never had a problem.:)

 

Our local P.O. has advised that new policy bars holding for more than 30 days.

 

Until a few years ago, our mail was dropped in a slot through the front door - no problem at all. Now if we cannot arrange for a reliable neighbor to pick it up daily from our RFD mailbox as she checks out house, we file a change of address to my daughter's address and she holds it for us -- then re re-change upon return.

[sail7seas]

I agree with those who suggest it a bad idea to leave a house unchecked for all that time. If you have anyone you can trust not only to do as requested but safeguard your key/alarm code, that is the best idea. Leave a few pre-addressed overnight mail envelopes and money on a counter for them to mail anything that looks important to you when you are at the condo.

 

Check your insurance policy. They all diifer as to your responsibility for safeguarding an empty house.

[SPacificbound]

:)We are frequently gone 2 to 3+ months at a time, twice a year.

 

I pay a house sitter to come by three times a week, add water to the pool, pick up mail, and walk thru the house. I leave three baskets on the island "junk" "probably junk" "might be important".

Then when I get home I prioritize the mail to go thru.

 

I have a gardener and a pool company weekly all year, if we are here or not.

 

When we leave I set the thermostat at 76 if it is warm while we will be gone, 68 if it is cold weather.

 

Due to sprinkler system and pool that need water, turning the water off isn't an option. Turning the water off to the toilets is.

 

We have an alarm system, cameras inside and out, a well lighted exterior, and security doors and screens.

 

I have been paying bills online for years, so I just do the same while gone. The only bill that I cannot get online is our water bill so I just pay an exaggerated amount each month. I always have a credit balance when we get home.

 

My gardener's daughter emails me his charges for each month, my pool company has a credit card.

 

We never stay in one place long enough to have mail sent to us. :)

Edited August 16, 2015 by SPacificbound

[Treven]

Vacation hold with post office. All of my bills are paid automatically by my bank whether I'm home or away so that's not anything I worry about.

[mycomputer]

You can go online fill out Mail hold one with your first name / last name and home address and then do a mail hold with your husbands first name / last name and address. It works for my parents when the go away to their 2nd home in a different state for 6-8 weeks. Never a problem.

[NMLady]

. ...

 

Not all bills are payable online, so I need the actual bill to ensure I won't be late in paying. Having a neighbor put your mail in a box for more than one billing cycle could result in late payments. ...

 

I don't know of any bills that can't be paid online. Even our electric bill and propane accounts are online. Our auto insurance is semi-annual but can be checked online and paid online. Our home insurance is annual and can also be checked and paid online.

Most of our bills are paid automatically either from the checking account or charged to the credit card. Credit card is paid automatically. We set all of that up when we first started cruising.

[GUT2407]

I started planning 30 years ago that's why we had DD.

[Viv0828]

We use our DD as well. We get most everything important online. DD opens our mail and sends a pic if she thinks it might be important. Advertisements and stuff get dumped. We have a surprisingly small stack of mail to go through, even if we're gone for several months.