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Time to start a thread I've been meaning to for a while:
Tips on How You Can Help Your Friendly Neighborhood Mailman
(1/continuing series)
Tips on How You Can Help Your Friendly Neighborhood Mailman
(1/continuing series)
1. Display your house number *somewhere* on the house or at the end of your driveway. Yes, this includes rural people, probably primarily.
2. Make sure the house number is *high contrast*. Black numbers on dark wood paneling don't cut it. It may look cute, but you'll still be looking for your packages for a while if we can't figure out which house it is.
3. If at all possible (esp rural), make a circular driveway, or a wide place to turn around at the end. We're discouraged from backing up, so this helps a ton.
4. If you live in a neighborhood, and you go to a centrally located place to get your mail (the big metal boxes we call CBUs), please check your mail every day. I encounter far too many boxes I have to shove mail into.
5. Along with #4, if you get a notification that your package has been delivered to a parcel locker in a CBU, *go get it*. We need those, esp this time of year, and it helps us a bunch when we come and they're empty.
6. Some people think that it's cute to spell their house number out in words instead of numbers.
Don't be those people.
Don't be those people.
7. At the holidays, do this. #SeenOnMyRoute
8. Another positive: people who have decorative benches outside their doors.
No one may ever sit on them, but it makes a nice place to set packages where we don't have to bend down.
No one may ever sit on them, but it makes a nice place to set packages where we don't have to bend down.
9. Some people think, "Oh, this smooth polished stone will look really pretty as a sidewalk."
It does look pretty, but other people will immediately hit the ground during the wintertime attempting to carry heavy packages across it.
It does look pretty, but other people will immediately hit the ground during the wintertime attempting to carry heavy packages across it.
10. Make sure your street address is where your driveway comes put. It is insanely confusing when your address is one street, and your driveway is on another.
11. If you happen to be at your mailbox, and your mail carrier arrives later than usual, don't make a comment about it.
We know.
We know.
12. Speaking of being at your mailbox, if yours is in a cluster box site, and you happen by while the carrier is loading, do not pull up to the site and stand there watching us work.
We're done when we're done. This doesn't make us go faster.
We're done when we're done. This doesn't make us go faster.
13. We're not stealing your mail. No one else probably is either. Misdelivery is much more likely.
14. If you put your trash can at the end of your driveway for pickup, put it on the opposite side from your mailbox, and take it in once it's empty. If it's too close to the box, it's a pain to get to, especially if we have to drive around the bin multiple days.
15. Have a piece of mail in your box not for you? Here are two steps:
1. Check for words like "current resident." That means it *is* for you.
2. If not, make a note and put it back in your box or outgoing mail slot. The note is the key thing.
1. Check for words like "current resident." That means it *is* for you.
2. If not, make a note and put it back in your box or outgoing mail slot. The note is the key thing.
16. Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop ordering dog or cat food through Amazon. It takes up too much room in our vehicles, and is really unwieldy, especially at this time of year.
