Should my mail come on vacation with me?

July 29, 2011 3:04 AM

We will be in another state for the month of August, and are trying to decide whether to have our mail forwarded to the place we'll be staying (a home) or collected by a friend and held for us until our return. There's no issue of bills coming due, since we pay those online, nor any other urgent missives we'd have to worry about.

We'd love to have all our magazines, personal correspondence, etc. while we're away, but I worry that having mail forwarded and then redirected back to our home state could result in delays and lost mail and US Postal Service snafus.

Does anyone have experience with this or work for the USPS? Should we go ahead and do it with confidence, or live without The Week and The New Yorker for a month?

posted by aimeedee to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

I've had the USPS hold my mail when I've been away; never longer than two weeks in my own case, but it's never been a problem. You can have them deliver it all after a certain date, or keep holding it until you call to pick it up, your choice.
posted by easily confused at 3:07 AM on July 29, 2011

How about leaving your friend with several pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes and have them stuff the mail into them once a week and post it to you?
posted by vacapinta at 3:08 AM on July 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

Just have the USPS hold your mail - then you can pick it up all at once when you return. I did this last year, and when my 30-day trip turned into a 4 month trip I was very relieved that the PO simply kept my stuff in one place (minus the junk mail) and handed it all to me in a bin once I returned.

I've had friends gather my mail for me before and things got lost, and mail forwarding takes up to a month to go through (according to the PO) - so it's really easiest to just to a "vacation hold" with your closest Post Office.
posted by annathea at 3:16 AM on July 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have had mixed experience with temporary holds at the post office, and I'm loath to ask them to do a temporary forward; that seems like a recipe for disaster.

For a month, I'd either ask your friends to send you the personal mail/magazines you want (there are USPS mailers that allow you to mail anything that fits inside for a flat rate--meaning your friends wouldn't have to be bothered with going to the post office), or I'd just buy the magazines for that month.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:55 AM on July 29, 2011

Response by poster: Oh, lovely. The idea of flat rate mailers can solve our problem; our friend can do that a few times during the month and we won't have to enter the world of USPS bureaucracy or have to guess the amount of postage to put on mailing envelopes.

Thank you, hive mind. California, here I come!
posted by aimeedee at 4:59 AM on July 29, 2011

Considering how long it takes them to actually start forwarding my mail and then how long it takes for forwarded mail to reach my new apartment (even when I moved within the same post office's jurisdiction) I would not trust the forwarding system to be helpful for a month long vacation.

I'd go with the priority mail flat rate envelope and some helpful neighbors idea.
posted by magnetsphere at 6:47 AM on July 29, 2011

I realize this was asked and answered a few days ago, but for anyone who finds this via search, another anecdote in favor of having mail picked up by a friend, rather than forwarded or held by USPS:

My parents live in New Hampshire. They spent last February and March in Florida and had the post office hold all their mail. When they returned to New Hampshire, there was a warrant out for my mother's arrest. That big pile of held mail contained a summons for jury duty, which of course was not responded to.
posted by Daily Alice at 8:23 AM on August 1, 2011