Do you put outgoing mail in your mailbox or take to the PO?

[alien_host]

At our old house we had a postal worker who walked the route and our mailbox was attached to the house (no little red flag) so I always took our outgoing mail to the PO which was just down the street anyway. I felt there was more risk the mail got "lost" when the postal worker was walking around and it might get mixed up in his bag etc.

Now that we have a house with a mailbox at the end of the driveway with the little red flag, I still find myself going to the PO to drop it off. I don't know why, habit I guess. I think it would be easier to leave it in our mailbox.

So who leaves their mail in their mailbox for the postal worker to pick up and who takes it to a "blue" postal box or to the post office directly?

[egoldber]

I usually leave it in the box unless it is something that I want to make sure gets sent faster. I have noticed that leaving something in the box makes it take an extra day (usually Netflix) vs dropping it at the post office.

ETA: I also live down the street from a major regional postal processing center and I am often SHOCKED at how quickly mail gets delivered from there. Things I drop off there will sometimes make it to, for example, Chicago or Denver in a single day.

[HIU8]

mailbox unless there have been any incidents in my neighborhood recently (we had some issues with mail being taken by kids in the neighborhood and by strangers walking through). We have not had any issues for about a year, so I feel comfortable leaving my mail in my mailbox (when we were having issues I would drop it in the mailbox at DS's preschool--the post office is in a very inconvienient place and I rarely go there).

Edited: we pay most of our bills online, except for a couple, so most of what is in the mailbox are cards, reply back things and the occasional bill.

[mamicka]

Take it to the PO. Apparently the red flag on the mailbox doesn't mean anything to our mail carrier. The incoming mail just gets plopped right on top of the outgoing mail. Every.single.time.

[ourbabygirl]

Bills (the ones we can't pay online) I bring to the post office; greeting cards and thank you letters I usually leave in our mailbox, or bring to a blue mailbox near our grocery store. We don't have a red flag on our mailbox, either (we're the second owners of this house), but I've heard that they can be signals to thieves that there's something inside they could steal.

[Carrots]

We leave ours in our mail slot in the front door. I don't like doing it because of what I have read about identity theft and people stealing mail. Most neighborhoods in our city have the blue drop boxes, but for some reason ours doesn't.

[elliput]

My neighborhood has the multiple address style mail boxes which has an outgoing mail slot. I usually drop off any mail I am sending when I pick up the days mail (sometimes I'll make two trips if I want to get something out that day). The closest post office is several miles from me and not really "on the way" to anywhere I go. About the only time I go there is when I am mailing a package.

[alien_host]

ETA: I also live down the street from a major regional postal processing center and I am often SHOCKED at how quickly mail gets delivered from there. Things I drop off there will sometimes make it to, for example, Chicago or Denver in a single day.

When I took stuff to the PO directly, I could drop a letter to on Friday and it would get to CA by Monday (from MA), I thought that was pretty good. Locally my family gets letters the next day, which also seems speedy to me.

I think if I'm mailing out a check or tax returns or something important, I'll probably still take it to the PO. Other misc. mail may go in the box.

I never really thought of the "red flag" being an actual red flag to theives!

[Momof3Labs]

Usually leave it in the mailbox at the end of the driveway, but sometimes we walk it to the grocery store behind our house, which has a blue mailbox. The pickup time at the grocery store is pretty early in the day, though, and our mailperson comes through late in the day, so I only take it to the grocery store in the morning or on a Sunday.

[MNmomtobe]

There are some things like the mortgage check that I will not leave in there. I will usually leave some mail in there if I know the mailman if going to be here soon and we are leaving the house.
Good thought about the identity theft though. Something to think about.