Postal choices (rentals, cheaper, temporary, move)

[donlookingforplace]

Hello All

I am moving to Seattle from California.. My company is giving me a temporary housing..for up to a month so I can find an apartment meanwhile..all this is fine..

What are the options I have for forwarding the mail.. if I knew the apartment I'd be moving into I could just forward my mail there.. but how do we handle the temporary forwarding? I can fwd the mail to the temp housing.. usually it takes about a week for the fwded mail to start arriving.. and then again I need to apply for another fwd to the actual apartment.. is this the only option or are there others?

Thanks in advance,
Don.

[Cattknap]

P.O. Box - you can get your application from the local post office. A postal clerk looked at our 2 forms of I.D's and stamped our application - we filled it out and copied two forms of ID and mailed it to the post office with a check for our post office box.....we called the post office ahead of time to see if they had a post office box available in the size we wanted....I sent the application, copies of I.D. and check for 6 months of rental to the person's attention that I spoke with and a note telling them I would be calling them in a week to get my P.O. Box #.....( the postal clerk in KY told me to call back in a week and ask for her) - everything worked like a charm.

Interesting thing: P.O. Box rentals vary in price depending on where you are renting them. The same medium size post office box was $4 cheaper in KY than here in CA.

Another interesting thing: Many postal clerks don't know you can apply for a p.o. box by mail - so if a clerk tells you this can't be done - assure them it can (I emailed and got instructions via the post office offical web site before I got the application at my local post office)....it is a fairly rare thing for people to do, but it is doable.

[Cattknap]

Just to clarify - we mailed the application to the post office in the state/city we were moving to - calling ahead to verify they had a box for us and letting them know we would be mailing the application.

[allforcats]

OR -- have your mail FORWARDED from your old P.O. to GENERAL DELIVERY at the zip code you will be working (or staying) at in Seattle. General Delivery is the free method that's been used for over a hundred years...

When you go to collect your mail at General Delivery, you will need I.D. Check with the USPS website, or at your local P.O., to find out what I.D. you must have to claim General Delivery mail.

[trueyank]

thanks for the PO box info it was very helpful, I'm moving from Fl to De and wanted to know how to set this up in advance before I arrive.

Also, Does anyone have any suggestions or helpful hints? I think I have remembered everything a six state move entails, but I feel like I'm forgetting something small but important..there's so much preparation, never done this before. It might just be last minute anxiety, the big move takes place this weekend. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.