Best Results Organizing

As mentioned before in these pages, Paper Doll loves mail! I love walking to the mailbox to get my mail, opening my mail and culling all the “shiny stuff” (the junk advertising inserted in bills), and picking up packages. I also enjoy sending greeting cards and packages, though I’m as likely as anyone else to let the nice folks at Amazon do most of my shipping for me.

Mail-related disorganization usually starts when people neglect to show up for mail call. Mail piles up, junk mail intermingles with important bills and insurance renewals, and a mess can ensue. We’ve talked before how to make life more efficient by handling mail strategically.

But sometimes, even people who do show up for mail call encounter some frustrations in trying to keep inbound and outbound mail tasks from cluttering their time and space. So, today, I have a roundup of solutions to help you keep tabs on mail and packages.

INFORMED DELIVERY FROM THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE

Over the past several years, there have been, shall we say, “issues” with postal delivery. Things that used to arrive within a matter of two or three days can now be delayed for a week or more. It’s definitely been a frustration, but we can hope that the $107 billion overhaul of the USPS, via the Senate’s recent passage of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, should bring huge improvements. But the USPS has one feature right now that can ease your mail experience.

Informed Delivery is a free service from the USPS. You just sign up for an account using your preferred email address and password. Once you verify your identity, you will get a daily email showing what is due to be delivered to you that day.

The top section of each email shows you a black-and-white photograph of the front of your First Class (letters, cards, bills) and Third Class (advertising and junk mail) mail. For Second Class mail (newspapers and magazines), you generally get a notice that there’s a piece of mail for which there is no photograph. Fourth Class (media mail, like books, CDs, or DVDs) will generally show up under packages.

Below the postal mail section, there are two Informed Delivery sections related to packages: Arriving Today and Arriving Soon. The packages usually have tracking numbers associated with them, so you can see from where an item is traveling with one click.

You can get USPS tracking updates for your incoming packages, add special delivery instructions, manage requested email or text notifications regarding package deliveries, and even schedule redelivery if there’s a potential issue with when a particular package is set to arrive.

Informed Delivery has a secure online dashboard, so you can log in via any browser to see what mail is due, which is convenient if you’re trying to avoid logging into your email (like when you’re on vacation). Once you log in, you’ll have clickable access to any of the past seven days of delivery information, plus a weekly summary count of the number of mail pieces and packages you’ve received.

The dashboard also has a simple checkbox system where you can notify the post office if a package they’ve said would be delivered has not been. I’ve been using Informed Delivery for several years, and can only recall a few occasions where items were not delivered on the expected day, and none where the item did not arrive within one day.

In addition to email and the dashboard, you can also check your Informed Delivery via the USPS Mobile app for iOS or Android.

You may be wondering why you might want to know what’s coming in your mail.

Well, it all depends on your situation. For example, if you’re getting a package with perishable items, you’re going to want to make sure you head to the mailbox soon after the postal carrier arrives to get that package into the house on a sweltering (or frigid) day. Sometimes, you might be getting something in the mail that you want to keep as a surprise from other household members.

For me, it’s helpful to know if I’ve received checks in the mail; the postal carrier arrives after I leave for my client days, so if I know I have a check in the mailbox, I head toward my house, first, after a client session, before heading onward to the bank. (Yes, I can and sometimes do use mobile deposit, but that’s a subject for a different email.)

My mailbox is one of hundreds in two large mailbox banks on either side of my complex’s driveway, about as far as you can get from my front door and still be on the property. I’ll admit, even though I love mail, there are “in-office” days when it’s cold and raining and I really, really don’t want to go out only to find that the only mail I’ve received is a postcard ad. And our mailboxes are tiny (and weird, arrayed like small, vertical shoeboxes), so I don’t want to skip a day only to find, the next day, the box is crammed with two day’s worth of mail. Informed Delivery helps me know what’s what!

THE MAGIC OF GOOGLE

What if you are expecting a package (or have sent a package) and have the tracking number in hand? Sure, you can navigate over to the FedEx, UPS, or USPS websites, but you don’t have to.

Just pop over to Google and type in your tracking number. While you might possibly get other search results as well, you’ll definitely get a prominent box on the screen showing your shipping carrier and tracking number. Click the tracking number and it’ll take you directly to the tracking information for that package and carrier.

Seriously, it’s that easy.

This works great when the sender has given you the tracking number but not told you which shipping company they’ve used. This is common when you make a purchase from a third-party seller through a company like Ebay or Etsy. The sender may even have created the tracking number as a link in a confirmation email — but you know better than to click a link in an email from a stranger, right? Just copy-and-paste the tracking number into Google and you’ll be directed right to the official courier’s tracking page for your package. 

HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKE? CHECK THE SERVICE STANDARDS MAP!

Let’s get back to the post office. Let’s say you want to mail a payment, send a birthday card, or get those save-the-date cards on their way for a big party, an event for work, or a wedding. As long as you’re sending First Class mail, cards, or flats (large envelopes), I’ve got a nifty tool for you.

USPS has a lesser-known service called Service Standards Maps as part of their Postal Pro division:

Select the service type — The USPS refers to this by “originating,” “destinating” (which is not a word in any non-USPS vocabulary, but the meaning is obvious), and “destination entry” (for which I’ve been unable to get a clear explanation).

Select the mail class category — Choose from First Class Letters and Flats, First Class Parcels, Marketing Mail, Package Services, Parcel Select and Parcel Select Lightweight, or Periodicals (magazines/newspapers).

Select the zip code and city name — Note, you can’t type in your 5-digit zip code. Instead, use the drop-down to find the first 3 digits in your zip code, and it’ll show you a corresponding city.

You can also click a box to see the cities in alphabetical order, instead, but be sure to cross-check to make sure the first three digits match your zip code. As we’ve learned from The Simpsons, there are a lot of Springfields out there!

The resulting map will give you a good (and hopefully accurate) idea of how long your mail will take to get where it’s going. It’s not ideal to know that it’ll take three days to get to Atlanta from my house (when I could drive that in 90 minutes) or 16 days to get to Alaska (not that I know anyone there), but forewarned is forearmed!

WHAT IF YOU HAVE A LOT TO SHIP AND TRACK? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!

Maybe you’re not worried about mail and shipping for your home and family, but perhaps you sell things and have to ship them hither and yon? 

Parcel is a neato-keen shipment tracking tool, but up-front, I’ll warn you that the apps are only for Mac and iOS (including iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, in case you need to track your shipments while you’re running a marathon)! You can, however, log in via any browser, if you must.

Parcel supports more than 300 different worldwide carriers including FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, Royal Mail, and, well, more than 295 more!

Tracking many packages manually is no fun. You’re constantly copying-and-pasting tracking numbers and checking daily to make sure that things are still on their way. Parcel is designed to keep you updated on all aspects of your shipments by notifying you about every “delivery event” with push notifications on any Mac or iOS devices. (However, note that push notifications require a premium subscription for $4.99 per year).

Other Parcel features include finding where your deliveries were and are and seeing that overlaid on a map, a day counter for keeping track of how long your package is in transit, and a barcode scanner. Plus, if you sell items through Amazon, Parcel has a secure Amazon integration. 

Of course, Parcel isn’t the only multi-carrier tracker service. There are oodles! Others include:

• PackageMapping — While this site only tracks 17 courier services, if you’re in North America, that should be enough. Not only will you get package status updates by text, but you can see your package’s location overlaid on a map. Animated graphics tell you whether the most recent status for your package was via road, plane, boat, train, and more. (No word on whether there are animations for donkey mail or carrier pigeons.) If you create an account in the app, you can track all of your packages on one dashboard and get tracking notifications. 
• Pkge.net tracks 750 delivery services on four continents.
• 17 Track is a free site and iOS and Android app that supports tracking more than 700 international postal services and couriers. Enter up to 40 tracking numbers in a single block on the 17 Track website, and they’ll give you a detailed breakdown of each package’s progress, individually.

WHAT ABOUT GETTING RID OF CARDBOARD BOX CLUTTER?

Do you save every Amazon box you get, because you just know you’ll need a box for shipping something, or for taking donations, or for helping your kid get that working, scale-model volcano to school?

I get it. As a professional organizer, I see lots and lots of cardboard boxes piled up and tipping over, and everyone has a good reason for why. But come on. 

How many boxes do you have? Do you even know? Step away from the blog for a minute and go count. Maybe get them all into one room. Scary, I know.

Now, how many boxes have you really (really, really) used for shipping or whatever in the last month? Do you get incoming boxes often enough that you could replenish your stock in the course of a month? If so, it’s time to downsize your box collection.

If you’ve had the box for your microwave or printer (or other similarly BIG cardboard box) for more than a month, it’s time to cut it down, flatten it, and send it to recycling (or offer it up to your neighborhood Freecycle/Buy-Nothing group).

For those small and medium sized boxes, reduce your collection by two-thirds (to start). So, if you have nine boxes from Amazon, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Kohl’s, or wherever you’ve become addicted to shopping over the past two years, let go of six of them. If you’ve got 24, well, get down to eight but try to let go of more. And then when new boxes come into your home, let go of the older ones. Insects love the adhesive that holds cardboard boxes together, and you don’t want to attract them, right?

For a less unwieldy option for small-to-medium items, consider Scotch Flex & Seal. I wrote extensively about this amazing stuff in This “Magic” Product Makes Shipping Packages as Easy as Wrapping Leftovers back in December 2019. (Ah, we were all so young and innocent then.) The following is an excerpt of what I wrote then.

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3M is a marvel of innovation. The same parent company that brought us Post-It® Notes and Command hooks has done it again. They’ve invented a shipping solution that requires keeping less packing material and fewer supplies, takes less time, and creates a smaller dimensional weight for the things you ship.

And, honestly, I’m not persuaded that it isn’t some kind of magic.

Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll

First, let’s get an overview of the product, with some fun, bouncy music.

Cool, eh? So, let’s dig deeper. How does this product save space, time, and money? 

Eliminate clutter 

What do you keep on hand for shipping packages? Boxes, right? Probably lots and lots of Amazon (and other) boxes. Maybe USPS “priority” boxes (which always seem to be way too large or just a little too shallow)? A family member bought a gorgeous Kitchenaid stand mixer and had it shipped. It came in a glossy, specially-carved Kitchenaid box (with a photo of the mixer on the package) inside a matching, plain, cardboard Kitchenaid-branded box (each with specially-placed handles for ergonomic carriage) and the whole thing was inside a box that would have made a nice toddler playhouse.

I bet you don’t just hoard boxes. I bet you have bubble wrap. (And not nice rolls of bubble wrap, but pre-used bubble wrap that someone in your house has popped and flattened along the edges, right?) Or maybe you have styrofoam peanuts. Or those clear, little balloons that look like nothing so much as an inflated zip-lock sandwich bag without the zipper?

And where are you storing these cardboard boxes, bubble mailers, poly bags, bubble wrap, and package stuffing? Probably wherever you can find to put it, and likely not in a very sound system. (No, I’m not peeking in your windows while you’re sleeping. Promise!)

Because the Flex & Seal allows you to customize your package to fit precisely around the edges of your item, there’s no wasted space and no unnecessary padding to keep on-hand. Scotch’s marketing claims to save up to 50% on supplies, time, and space vs. using boxes. I don’t know how they arrived at that statistic, but it does mean that you can take up less space, and the roll can be stored horizontally or vertically, like a rolled-up yoga mat.

Save time

My clients are invariably piling up to-be-shipped items on the dining room table or on kitchen counters because they anticipate (often correctly) that it will be time-consuming to find a suitably-sized box, pad and pack the item(s) safely, and seal everything confidently. Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll promises make packing as simple as:

• Cut a piece of the roll long enough to sandwich the item you’re shipping.
• Fold the Flex & Seal over whatever you’re shipping.  
• Press to seal it by continuing to press around the three (non-folded) edges. (Imagine you’re wrapping your Thanksgiving leftovers in aluminum foil before putting them in the freezer. Or, as the product’s web site says, “Make sure you’re pressing gray surface to gray surface. A helpful way to remember it: Do not wrap like a present, fold and press like a calzone!”)

That’s it. Print out your label and affix it to the package. Wheeeee!

Secure and immobilize your package

Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll may look like a prettier version of bubble wrap, but it harbors a secret superpower. Flex & Seal is constructed with three layers.

The blue outer layer is tough and durable, making the package water-resistant and tear-resistant. The clear middle layer is bubble wrap, but seems slightly less inflated (and is difficult to pop), creating firm cushioning for the package. 

And the grey inner layer is MAGIC. (OK, I’m sure it’s science, but Paper Doll can’t figure out how it works!) This inner layer’s “adhesive technology” makes it stick securely to itself but not whatever you’re shipping!

Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll sticks to itself and not to what you put inside! What kooky shipping witchcraft is this? Share on X

Once you fold the Flex & Seal over your item (sandwiching it), just press firmly for a guaranteed seal. Folded and smushed (for another scientific term), the Flex & Seal conforms to the shape of whatever you’re shipping, immobilizing it to protect against wiggling during shipping.

Save money

The marketing for the Flex & Seal Shipping Roll notes that by eliminating extra packing and shipping supplies, and securely sealing around the shape of whatever you’re shipping, it can reduce the package’s dimensional weight. That should reduce your costs. Yay!

Scotch™ Flex and Seal Shipping Roll comes in four sizes:

• 10′ long x 15″ wide
• 20′ long x 15″ wide
• 50′ long x 15″ wide
• 200′ long x 15″ wide (suitable for small business shippers or people with LOTS of grandchildren)

Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll is available online at Amazon and Shoplet, and at Target, Walmart, Office Depot, and Staples. Prices range from about $9 for the 10′ roll to $99 for the 200′ roll.

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Wondering about the catalyst for today’s post? I direct you to last Friday’s Twitter thread of frustration, brought on by a two-day shipping problem where FedEx locally couldn’t figure out how to deliver a package, couldn’t communicate with me, couldn’t communicate with their own customer support and vice versa. To solve that, dear readers, it took insisting on being connected with Resolution Support.

So, Tina @FedEx called back today. Left one voicemail on landline w/my correct address but saying they’d been told I have a new one, and another voicemail on my cell, misreading (by one digit) my address & saying they were told I moved. Both messages directed me 1/6 https://t.co/DOsAi0C2yQ

— Julie Bestry, CPO® (@ProfOrganizer) March 18, 2022

Happily, it all turned out fine, in a particularly cheesy way:

To those DMing for details: It was a delayed, Wednesday in Memphis, yesterday & today in Chattanooga, (perishable) birthday present from @CraigJetMetFan via @DakinFarm. The freezy packs were warm but the cheese-y goodness within was still nice and cold. https://t.co/zRn4393ENH

— Julie Bestry, CPO® (@ProfOrganizer) March 18, 2022