I want to buy land in FL, put a mailbox on it, use for car storage and mail only

[roadit]

There are several sites that state forwarding the mail unless authorized to do so as either a forwarding service or persons with power of attorney or executor of an estate is ILLEGAL.

Something you may want to be clear about before you begin.

Informally having friends/relatives/neighbors/someone collecting mail out of my mailbox to send on to me is not illegal.  In the past, I've had roommates/relatives/neighbors send me my mail when I was traveling out of state.  If I had asked any of them to apply with the Post Office as a Commercial Mail Service Receiver, or with a notarized power of attorney, they would think I'm nuts.   I think what you are confusing and conflating is for a larger scale commercial service that's operating as a business vs someone doing this informally.   If your neighbor or friend or RV'er staying on your land/property collects your mail and sends it to you, that doesn't require applying for the formal designation as a mail service business - since it's not a business.  Out of 330+ million people in the US, people moving/traveling, I'm sure every day, that people collect and send mail for friends/relatives/neighbors.  Of course if you set it up as a business on a large scale with many mailboxes, the Post Office is going to want one to abide by their regulations such as getting ID on each boxholder to reduce the risk of the users using it for receiving illegal things in the mail.   Somebody getting mail out of my own mailbox for me, at my authorization, to mail onto me while I am traveling is not illegal.  Similarly, if you have a mailbox at an RV park and are traveling out of state, if you have the RV park manager or RV neighbor or relative, at your request, collect your mail and send it on to you, that's not illegal either.  At the request of roommates, I've also sent mail on to them when they were out of state.  

Just as some people aren't comfortable sleeping in an RV/camping or don't like that lifestyle, some people wouldn't want to be inconvenienced to assist others with going to someone else's mailbox, collecting the mail, then putting it into a larger envelope/box to send on to the recipient.  It's not necessary to rain on my parade if it's not something that YOU personally wouldn't want to help someone else do.  I came here for ideas/solutions to advance my goal, not be deterred or roadblocked.

I personally don't like to go more than a day without showering, but if some people want to experience nature where there are no shower facilities nearby, and they don't have an RV with a shower, it's not my place, nor the purpose of this forum to be antagonistic towards those who ask about and want to learn the best solutions without a shower available, such as sponge baths, baby wipes, showering naturally if it rains by standing in the rain, using a stream/river, etc.   Being negative to say going days without a shower is gross/unsanitary/smelly/icky, is not helpful.   Ideas and solutions to overcome the lack of a shower are helpful.  Yesterday, I stumbled across YouTube videos of car campers, one living full time in a small Toyota Prius interviewed by the guy who founded this forum, another in a Honda Civic, both of which are small cars.  The Honda Civic housed a young couple, showing how they shower in a foldable flexible plastic 4 foot x 1 foot high container, crouching down, sitting, then using a handpump to shower, in the car, in the winter, with snow on the ground!   They heated the water, then poured it into a container with a hand pump sprayer.   I personally wouldn't want to shower in something like a kiddie pool with a hand sprayer, but I enjoyed seeing the ingenuity and creativity of their setup to overcome not having a standup shower available.   They probably can't afford an RV, so if someone wants to know how to shower if all you have is a car, shouldn't the forums give HELPFUL advice/solutions to make the most of the situation?

Showering in a Honda Civic


I came here looking for help, ideas, possible solutions to solve my mail problem which is a stressful problem for me to overcome.  I found this forum days ago by seeing a few YouTube videos by CheapRVLiving, and thought it would be a great place to ask my questions.  Thanks for understanding.

"We strive to maintain a safe space to ask questions, discuss relevant topics, and support each other. All are welcome."

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

IMO you are way over complicating this.

Get an in post office mail box (the largest is 2.3 cu. ft.!).  Pay someone to empty it and mail you the contents.  Have it emptied how ever often you deem appropriate.

Much more secure; rural mail boxes are very insecure (even locked ones).  And locked ones are a direct invitation to thieves and a challenge to kids.

No problems with maintaining the mailbox.  If someone destroys it, you have to find someone to replace it or travel to do it yourself.  If it is custom made it must be blessed by the postmaster general.

Much easier to find someone to travel to a post office than to a rural piece of property.  Much easier to find someone reliable to handle your mail; the pool of possible employees is going to be much smaller rurally than in a town with a post office.

 

[WanderingRose]

In our early traveling days, like in 2007-08, we had first class mail forwarded to a UPS box, and at our request they forwarded it to us wherever in the country we were at the time.

Our mail person held the rest of it, and delivered it when we returned.

We found two problems with forwarding to UPS:  a) much sorting is done by machine, and first class mail often ended up with the “junk”, and b) forwarding via Priority Mail was not reliably 2-3 days.

Sometimes if we were in a rural area mail could take 7-8 days to reach us, and often we would find ourselves spending extra days someplace waiting for our mail to arrive.

We learned quickly to go thru every piece of junk mail when we got home, because there were always first class items important to us that got sorted out.

My son lives here in town, and now when I’m gone he comes by to check the house once or twice a week, brings in the mail and goes thru it to photograph anything of importance and send that to me electronically.

He would do it for free, because he’s a good man, but since we began asking this of him the bank sends him a little money the first of every month.  He has a wife, three kids, a house and a full time job, so that’s the right thing to do.

It seems to me that your first order of business would be to find out if you can have only a mailbox and a vehicle stored on a piece of property you purchase in Florida, and various people staying on the land.  The rest will all come after that.

My thought about the Informed Delivery option with usps is that you would know what was coming.

“I came here for ideas/solutions to advance my goal, not be deterred or roadblocked.“

As to whether you could trust various people you have never met to reliably gather up and send your mail to you, the cautions against that are likely due to experience other posters have had and their knowledge of human nature/behavior.

I would issue the same caution, and it’s not so much a judgment on you and your ideas but based on my life experiences.

You’re asking for feedback and opinions, so they may not all be what you most want to hear.

For me, what I would want most was honest feedback, and I think that’s what you’re getting here.