Mail Forwarding Services

I've started researching mail forwarding services.  I've dabbled into the subject a few times, but this time I got serious.  We need to find one and get signed up fairly soon!

It's amazing how many companies there are out there forwarding people's mail, accepting their packages, etc.  Mail forwarding services aren't just used by full time RVers.  There are people who need a USA address to forward things from other countries.  There are the "snow birds" who follow the sun in their motorhomes and want to receive their mail while they are away from their "home base".  There are business travelers who are out of town a lot and don't want their mail piling up in the mail box.

A mail forwarding service can provide us with an Oregon street address once our house is gone, and we have no "stick & brick home".  That's what they (full timers) call homes made of traditional wood and stone.  Sometimes it's just referred to as a "stick house", I've learned.

Steve and I have decided to retain our Oregon residency -- at least for now.  We have the option to declare our "domicile" in another state at some point.  There are lots of options there and just as many reasons for choosing them.

We are both Oregonians - me a native, and Steve a very long-term resident.  We've worked here, lived here, and pay taxes here.  Our cars are registered here.  We both have made Oregon our home.  When we finish traveling, I would imagine at this point we would return "home" - Oregon.  Perhaps, however, things could chnage for us.  If so, assuming we wanted to, we could get a new address in, say, South Dakota, and declare our domicile there.  We would then vote there, register our cars there, have drivers licenses, and license plates on our cars that said "South Dakota".  South Dakota's advantages might be that they have no income tax, low registration fees, low excise taxes, and no requirement as to how long we need to live there in order to be considered residents.  We might decide to do that one day.  When you don't have a house that is attached to a foundation, you have options.  But, for now, when we are in the middle of so many changes, we have decided to remain Oregonians.  It's hard to imagine considering some other state our home at this point.

With that decided, I started hunting for mail forwarding services in Oregon who could provide us with an Oregon street address and a good set up for gathering our mail and getting it to us whenever and wherever we want it.  I actually found there are several mail forwarding companies in Oregon.  There are some that are very much home based kinds of companies.  I found one in Jefferson, Oregon, which happens to be down around Corvallis.  We found another, more professional looking one, in Tillamook.  I emailed them yesterday and learned that they will let us come down and see their operation.

Don't know if I've mentioned that I am married to "Mr. Safety" (my name for him, at times).  He needs a lot more assurance than I when it comes to trusting strangers.  I think we'd both like seeing how things work before we just change our address, though!  I mean, we are new at this!

Lots of online full timers use forwarding service.  The Escapees RV club has their own, Good Sam has one, etc.  They tend to be based in the more popular states for residency - those states without income taxes are popular.  I believe South Dakota, Texas, and Florida come up most frequently as I check out various forums online.

We hope to head down to Tillamook soon to check out Homebase Oregon.  Perhaps after the inspection this next week.