How to Manage Your Mail from the Road
You’ve decided to shift your life and redefine what success means to you. It’s such an exciting time!
Whether you’re planning to be on the road for a month or indefinitely, there are a few things to take into account.
Slightly boring but ultimately necessary, you need to look at the administrative tasks that come with this transition.
One of those tasks is mail. Yes, mail is one of the biggest pains of this lifestyle. Truly.
There are a few different options available to you.
Option 1. Have it sent to a trusted friend or family member
Select someone you trust to open your mail, they need to have the bandwidth to sort it and reach out as necessary. They’ll take a picture of what’s inside and send it to you.
To do this in the U.S., go to usps.com and have your address either permanently changed (cleaner, less flexibility) or temporarily forwarded (more flexible, more management) to their address.
If you chose to permanently change your address you need to contact all your providers to make the change, so it makes sense only if you know your mail needs to go there for more than just a few months..
If you chose forwarding, you can then change the forwarding status as needed, but there are are some downsides.
Forwards are only allowed for a finite number of months. So you have to manage turning it off & on.
USPS will forward First-Class Mail, Express Mail, and packages for 12 months. Periodicals and magazines will be forwarded for up to 60 days.
USPS doesn’t like doing this for long periods and sometimes they will start returning your mail to the sender.
There can be a lag between something arriving and you knowing about it.
In both cases it requires someone to do you a pretty big favor, so think about how you might show your appreciation.
Option 2: Rent a PO Box to be emptied periodically.
Similar to number 1 your mail just stays in the same place. Either have someone check it often or have it on hold until someone can check it.
The downsides to this are if you get a lot of mail the box may overflow and mail will get returned to the sender unless it’s on hold.
There are limits to how long you can have mail on hold.
Option number 3: Set up a virtual mailbox such as Traveling Mailbox
Your mail gets permanently forwarded or sent to a service provider who scans your envelopes and you manage the mail through an online interface that allows you to request that they scan the contents, deposit a check, forward mail to a specified address and more.
The upsides to this are that you see all your mail immediately and get to manage it.
The downsides are the potential privacy risk and cost. As well, since this is essentially a full change of address you will need to also contact all your providers to have them send everything to the new address. Again, this is likely not something you would want to do for a just a month or two.
For a full rundown of Virtual Mailbox options see this review comparison. I’ve used Traveling Mailbox for years & have been super happy with their service. I can open, forward mail, deposit checks, send faxes, shred mail. And I never get any junk mail, hurray!
Our recommendation:
For a few months have your mail forwarded to someone you trust, if you have that option. See how you might make it worth their while.
Unsubscribe, get rid of junk mail, and go paperless as much as possible to lighten the load. Tell this trusted helper what specifically to look out for and throw the rest in a box.
If you find that you will be away from your mail for a longer period, shift to a virtual mailbox. You don’t want to ask for a big favor for long periods and the delays may cause issues. You will also find the longer you are away from your mail the less unnecessary stuff shows up. At some point, it will become almost all important things.