# Am I required to have a physical mailbox? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627 "2010-04-01T19:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/41 "2010-04-08T20:58:15Z")
> [@badlyburnttoast](#): > > from time to time when I see the box stuffed to the brim with advertisements I don’t need or want I think back to that thread and consider how nice a junk mail free life would be… I don’t understand the antipathy to junk mail. I get a whole lot of it, but it has some uses: [ul] [li]big pieces work good for wrapping up potato peels, etc. to go in the garbage.[/li][li]crumpled up, it works fine as packing around packages to be shipped.[/li][li]shredded, it works nice in a neighbors pet litter boxes.[/li][li]it works nice as tinder for starting the fireplace.[/li][/ul] And if I don’t use it for one of those, just tossing it in the trash is no problem for me. ---
**Author:** ![questover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/b38774/32.png) [@questover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/questover)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/42 "2013-09-27T14:16:59Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > If you have a residential address—and AFAIK there’s no way not to have one unless you live at somebody else’s home and never conduct any transactions that require you to provide address information—then I don’t think there’s any way of officially removing yourself from the USPS mailing list, so to speak. If somebody can write your address on an approved item of postal mail and pay the appropriate postage, the Postal Service is legally bound to deliver it, so AFAICT that means you need to have some way to receive it. > Classic libertarian logic: get harassed by useless and annoying commercial intrusions from private businesses ==\> blame the government. > > You’re being inconvenienced by a bunch of unknown marketers whose pursuit of their own interests in selling names to mailing lists and soliciting potential customers overrides any concern they may have for the inconvenience and annoyance they’re causing you. And you imagine that the appropriate response is to try to hide from the mailman so he can’t do his job of properly delivering mail that his organization is paid to deliver. > > Why not tackle the problem at the source by signing up for the DMA Mail Preference Service and reduce your junk mail volume? And/or start telling all those firms that you’re doing your online transactions with to stop selling your address to mailing lists? > > Sure, it would be great if nothing showed up in your physical mailbox except what was personally or legally important to you, and sure, junk mail is indeed a royal pain in the ass. But your real beef here is with all the firms that keep sending you stuff you don’t want, not with the mailman just because he keeps putting the stuff they send you into your mailbox. Folks I may have found the solution to stopping junk mail. I discovered the USPS Form 1500. This form is for the purpose of stopping “erotically arousing or sexually provocative” material from being delivered to you. Here is what the instructions say on this form and I quote “Postmasters may not refuse to accept PS Form 1500 because the advertisement in question does not appear to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative. Only the addressee may make that determination”. So I’m the addressee and I have made this determination for all the junk mail I receive. I acquired the Form 1500 from my local PO, photo copied it numerous times, filled one out for each piece of mail and attached the piece of mail. When I delivered them (about 10) to my PO the counter gal immediately said “Sir these advertisements are not erotically arousing or sexually provocative”. I pointed out that the form clearly says that I am the only one who can make that determination. The form also says that after 30 days if this material gets delivered it is a violation of the Prohibitory Order. You can get the 1500 just by searching PO Form 1500 online. Who the heck knows if this will work but it was a hell of lot of fun doing it!!! Who knows what turns me on!!! ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/43 "2013-09-27T14:43:40Z")
that is worth a three year wait ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/44 "2013-09-27T18:21:35Z")
There is still some mail I get that I need. Not much, but some. Credit card renewals, driver’s licence renewal, municipal and school tax statements, magazines I subscribe to (although they might all go online only), and, most annoying of all the bills from my US cell phone carrier who will not accept credit payments from someone without a US address attached to the CC. (I think they are insane; they are paying at least a $1 a month on the remote chance that a $20 charge might bounce, when they could simply shut off service. And I am paying even more. Some gas stations have the same schtick, as does the automatic Metro Card refill machines in NYC. Anyway, I really do need mail delivery. That said, I get a lot of junk. Oh charitable solicitations since I refuse to make them over the phone when they call me. In fact, I think that at least 3/4 of my mail is that. Since I do make a lot of donations, that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/45 "2013-09-27T20:06:34Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > yeah, you have to put your mailing address on your drivers’ license, tax return, etc. don’t you? You put your physical address on your drivers license. > [@](#): > > What would happen then if you put down a street address or similar where the Post Office does not deliver? It must happen to those guys with a cottage in the woods or up a mountain… I suppose they use PO boxes? > [@Markxxx](#): > > …“We don’t have mail boxes here” If you want to get any mail you have to go to the post office and rent a box. … Not all parts of the country have home delivery for mail. You pick it up at the post office; renting the box may be more convenient because you can often pick up the mail after hours. ---
**Author:** ![SylverOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SylverOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SylverOne)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/46 "2013-09-27T20:13:56Z")
> [@runningdude](#): > > You put your physical address on your drivers license. Not always… my address on my DL is a PO Box. Has been for almost 10 years now. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/47 "2013-09-27T20:18:34Z")
If you have an actual mailbox, and you never take the mail out of it, and it gets so full that the mailman can’t squeeze any more flyers and catalogs into it, the mailman (by USPS policy) will remove all the mail from it and take it back to the post office, and stamp it all “unknown – return to sender” and that will be the end of it. No more mail will ever be put into your mailbox unless and until you formally notify the post office that it is an actual mailbox belonging to an actual person who will remove the mail from it. In Postal Language, “Your postal privileges will be suspended”. If you actually want your mail, and you go on vacation for more than three weeks, and do not inform the post office to hold your mail, this will also happen, and any mail you wanted to receive will be returned to sender marked “Unknown” and then you have to convince everyone that you are actually at that address receiving mail, and reinstate all your credit cards and everything that gets cancelled as a result of the postal policy of sending all your mail back after three weeks of non-collection from your mailbox. This is the bane of apartment dwellers, who have a little box with their apartment number on it. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/48 "2013-09-27T20:24:08Z")
Years later, nobody has yet pointed out that there’s no requirement to even have an address, so being required to have a mailbox is obviously not feasible. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/49 "2013-09-27T20:45:19Z")
I thought the old General Delivery thing still worked. That’s where you go to the post office and pick up your mail. Is that dead now? ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/50 "2013-09-27T21:40:27Z")
It’s very much alive and used by Appalachian Trail hikers, among others. Won’t need your parka till you get to Moose Hollow, VT? Don’t carry it all the way; mail it to yourself c/o general delivery at the Moose Hollow post office. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/51 "2013-09-27T22:51:52Z")
> [@coffeecat](#): > > It’s very much alive and used by Appalachian Trail hikers, among others. Won’t need your parka till you get to Moose Hollow, VT? Don’t carry it all the way; mail it to yourself c/o general delivery at the Moose Hollow post office. Where the hell is the Moose Hollow post office on the Appalachian Trail, would have been much better and warmer getting my parka there then Hanover NH 😃 ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/52 "2013-09-27T23:35:00Z")
> [@questover](#): > > Folks I may have found the solution to stopping junk mail. I discovered the USPS Form 1500. This form is for the purpose of stopping “erotically arousing or sexually provocative” material from being delivered to you. Here is what the instructions say on this form and I quote “Postmasters may not refuse to accept PS Form 1500 because the advertisement in question does not appear to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative. Only the addressee may make that determination”. So I’m the addressee and I have made this determination for all the junk mail I receive. I acquired the Form 1500 from my local PO, photo copied it numerous times, filled one out for each piece of mail and attached the piece of mail. When I delivered them (about 10) to my PO the counter gal immediately said “Sir these advertisements are not erotically arousing or sexually provocative”. I pointed out that the form clearly says that I am the only one who can make that determination. The form also says that after 30 days if this material gets delivered it is a violation of the Prohibitory Order. You can get the 1500 just by searching PO Form 1500 online. Who the heck knows if this will work but it was a hell of lot of fun doing it!!! Who knows what turns me on!!! I want to nominate this post as one of the best damn zombie posts I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if it’s true or not, regardless, it had me laughing and smiling for a while and even now I’m stifling the snickers. ETA: Found this on wikipedia: A prohibitory order against a specific mailer, although the language of the application form implies that explicit sexual content is the only basis for finding a mailpiece offensive, has been extended by case law to allow the recipient to declare any mailpiece obscene, for any reason whatsoever, with no requirement to state the reason(s) for taking offense.[3] The only absolute requirement is that it must be possible to construe the mailpiece as an offer to sell goods or services. Various rulings have upheld the Supreme Court decision that the postal customer’s discretion is not subject to review. So not only was this a damn entertaining zombie, it was factually spot on as well. I hazard to guess this is one of the first times a zany “try this crazy bureaucratic scheme!” from a new poster who resurrected an old thread has ever been correct. A truly worthy contribution to the thread, and to eradicating ignorance. And a perfect username/content match to boot. This is the pinnacle of zombies here, folks. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/53 "2013-09-27T23:47:42Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Where the hell is the Moose Hollow post office on the Appalachian Trail, would have been much better and warmer getting my parka there then Hanover NH 😃 I think it’s in another dimension. I’ll be mayor of Moose Hollow once I found it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/54 "2013-09-28T00:30:18Z")
I have a mail slot. Anything that doesn’t fit through the slot (thick envelope, package, etc.) gets left on my front steps. I assume that without the slot everything else would too. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/55 "2013-09-28T00:42:44Z")
> [@SylverOne](#): > > Not always… my address on my DL is a PO Box. Has been for almost 10 years now. How difficult was it to persuade the Department of Licensing to use a PO Box instead of a street address? ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/56 "2013-09-28T05:25:37Z")
Every time I ask about this I hear that the PO makes more $ off junk mail than 1st class postage. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/57 "2013-09-28T13:40:49Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I want to nominate this post as one of the best damn zombie posts I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if it’s true or not, regardless, it had me laughing and smiling for a while and even now I’m stifling the snickers. > > ETA: Found this on wikipedia: > … Of course, make sure that the article wasn’t edited yesterday, citing this thread as its “source”! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/58 "2013-09-28T22:02:23Z")
> [@coffeecat](#): > > I think it’s in another dimension. I’ll be mayor of Moose Hollow once I found it. 😉 The thru hikers would appreciate it very much, more trail towns are always welcome:cool: ---
**Author:** ![twhitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@twhitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twhitt)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/59 "2013-09-28T23:12:27Z")
I don’t get it. Say I declare that a particular piece of mail is sexually arousing, and per the law I’m the only one who can make this determination. What is the post office supposed to do with that information? Is this not asking them to hand filter my mail, looking for pieces similar to the one I’ve determined is sexually arousing? Isn’t that just offloading the task of anticipating my sexual arousal onto my local postal carrier? Alternatively it’s just a fancy way to refuse delivery of a single item. But we already established that I can refuse delivery of any single item at any time for any reason, right? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627/60 "2013-09-28T23:46:04Z")
> [@twhitt](#): > > I don’t get it. Say I declare that a particular piece of mail is sexually arousing, and per the law I’m the only one who can make this determination. What is the post office supposed to do with that information? Is this not asking them to hand filter my mail, looking for pieces similar to the one I’ve determined is sexually arousing? Isn’t that just offloading the task of anticipating my sexual arousal onto my local postal carrier? > > Alternatively it’s just a fancy way to refuse delivery of a single item. But we already established that I can refuse delivery of any single item at any time for any reason, right? The sender is notified, and must remove you from their mailing list. abut the post office does NOT examine your mail, they just deliver it (as required by law). So a form 1500 stops delivery of that single item, and also future deliveries from the same mailer. * * * Personally, it seems to me that this is lazy and irresponsible cheating of your fellow taxpayers. You are requiring the post office to waste customer money on doing this for you, when you could just as easily toss it in recycling yourself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-required-to-have-a-physical-mailbox/534627.md?page=4)