Hands down the #1 most asked question when we told people about our moving from a sticks & bricks house into our motorhome was, “What about your mail?”  If you’re considering an alternative lifestyle like living full-time in your RV, don’t let receiving your mail keep you from moving forward with your dream. 

There are many mail forwarding services available to folks like us.  In addition to collecting your mail, these businesses may also help you to establish residency. Brian & I chose to join Escapees, “the oldest, largest, and most loved RV membership organization in the world” and to use their mail service.  For a monthly fee, Escapees provides us with a mailing address in Livingston, Texas.  This is the address that we provided USPS for our change of address as well as the address that we use as our billing address for credit cards, other memberships, etc. And, it’s the return address that we use when sending out mail or packages ourselves.

As part of our mail service, we elect to have Escapees weed out all mail that is not first-class.  Let me tell you that when you opt into paperless documents for your bank accounts and credit cards, have no electric, gas, or water bill for a sticks & bricks home, AND are down to only first-class mail, there’s not much mail left!  We pay an additional $10 per month for scan service for our account. With this additional service, Escapees scans the outside of all first-class mail and sends an email notification announcing that we have new mail scans. Once logged into their website under our profile, we can view our scans.  We have a choice with each scan to:

1. Have them trash it
2. Have them open the envelope and scan the document inside at an additional cost of $0.50 per page.  This scan becomes available later via their website.
3. Have them send it with our next scheduled mailing (some people opt for a regular mail schedule while we choose to have mail sent upon our request).

Where do we have this mail sent?  We’ve found most privately owned campgrounds are willing to accept packages or mail for us.  We suggest that you ask first and also ask if there’s any detail we need to know about the address. Some places don’t allow USPS delivery but will allow FedEx or UPS. Some parks want your site number on the incoming mail and others don’t allow delivery to individual sites. Where do we have our mail sent if we aren’t staying in a state park or a campground that doesn’t accept packages? Did you know that your mail can be delivered to many post offices in the country by addressing the package to General Delivery? Be sure to contact the postmaster prior to having mail shipped to their post office.

Use https://www.postallocations.com/ website to find a local phone number for the post office nearest your location. If you receive the okay that you can have mail sent to that location, have the mail addressed as follows:

YOUR NAME
c/o General Delivery

City, State Zip Code

If the package is being sent via FedEx, you can always have it delivered to a FedEx location for pick up at no charge. With UPS, you may need to pay a small amount to be able to pick up a package from an individual franchise location but most corporate locations will receive packages at no charge.

One thing is certain, there are many options available to help nomads get their mail and packages delivered. We have generally been satisfied with our service from Escapees. 

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