Custom Designed Mailboxes: Good or Bad

Mailboxes are typically these rounded corner metal rectangle shaped objects that sit on the edge of your property and are there to receive and hold your mail. One end of the box opens so that mail is easily placed in the box. The mailbox sits atop a pole that usually is the height of your car window. Only mailboxes for homes that are located in areas where mail is delivered by car.

 

A red flag on one side of the mailbox signals mail that needs to be picked up for delivery elsewhere. If you rotate the red flag straight up in the air, the postman will know there is something in the box that needs to go to another location. The mail will go through the post office and be distributed accordingly. If you don’t rotate the flag up, the mail will just sit in your mailbox until you realize that you need to do something else about it.

 

Mailboxes are a convience we take for granted. Mail gets placed right in your mailbox saving you a trip to the post office. All you have to do is walk across your property to get your mail. 

 

The interior and exterior of a house is supposed to be what gets decorated. Not your mailbox. As if people don’t have enough things to waste time and money on, they are wasting time and money on their mailboxes. It seems that people have taken it upon themselves to revamp the simple mailbox. Nothing is allowed to be basic and simple. Instead of simple basic little rectangle shaped objects on poles, we see dragons and airplanes and crazy things of the sort.

Another thing about mailboxes that is irritating is the size and location of house numbers and resident’s names. The way in which the text is placed or not, often leads to some sort of confusion. When I was younger, I used to deliver newspapers for the Daily Freeman. When I first started, I went through a lot of hassle trying to figure out which house was what number and who lived there. I had about 25 houses to deliver to; about half had only names or numbers. About a quarter of the houses had both. 

Even if a mailbox has both the name and the house number, the typeface and size usually don’t match. They don’t match each other let alone any other house nearby. Nothing ever matches! The typeface, the size, and the location are never the same. Visually, it doesn’t cause any problems however some fonts are difficult to read. The same typeface would create a uniformity that is currently lacking. 

 

I enjoy looking at some custom made mailboxes. Some are really interesting in design as well as the way they are constructed. Some mailboxes however are too intense and so extreme that it makes the viewer not want to look at it. Seeing one of these mailboxes, I have to ask: Is this a mailbox or is it a lawn ornament? A friend of mine said that custom designed mailboxes are uglifing their property. If people are going to have custom-made mailboxes, there should be restrictions or limitations in their design. Some mailboxes are plastic, pre-made structures that look like a mailbox. I believe that all mailboxes should look like the original design for a mailbox.

 

Any kind of mailbox: new, old or custom should most certainly be standing up on its own! If a mailbox has duck tape or a latter holding it up, something needs to be done about this. It is not acceptable for the box to be taped to the pole it rests on. A very large base under the mailbox doesn't look very appealing. As sturdy as it might be, it is not acceptable. A rusted mailbox is easy to cover up. I certainly don’t agree with your mailbox matching the exact car that you have parked in your driveway. I understand that people really enjoy their vehicles but matching your mailbox to your car is a little over the top. Large mailboxes that look like animals or plants could be acceptable however they would have to be small.

 

I would like to see a set of regulations and restrictions set in place for the designers or manufactures to follow to minimize any confusion or arguments that might be taking place. Criteria could include the overall size and how much space required. It is not appropriate nor does it look nice if you place bricks between your mailbox and the pole to make the mailbox taller. It is not a pleasant task to bend down at the knees to place mail in the box. Hand painted numbers or letters that are so large that you can read them from a mile away do not qualify as taking care of the problem. The typeface for both the numbers and the letters should match each other. 

 

Your mailbox should not reflect your job title, whether you are a marine or a fisherman, it is not appropriate for your mailbox. The walls inside of your home are for displaying objects that apply to your job. It should be easy to spot where exactly the mail goes in. If you have to study a mailbox for ten minutes to try and figure out where the door is, the mailbox is not according to code. Your mailbox should not be a smaller replica of your home or any other building. Your mailbox should not resemble a United States Postal Service vehicle. People shouldn't be afraid to walk up to your mailbox.

 

The door on the front of the mailbox must be able to swing freely. The flag must stand up on its own. If neither of these are true, then the mailbox must be corrected. Loose hinges on the door are not acceptable either. The postman would take on another responsibility: if a mailbox isn’t to code, then he or she would be responsible for reporting this information back to the post office. If a mailbox is reported, that residence will not receive any more mail until their box is up to code. No punishments dealing with the law will be issued but the resident will have to go to the post office to get their mail. 

 

If a universal set of guidelines for the design of mailboxes were put in place, I believe that would make things easier on everybody as well as the postman. The postman wouldn’t have to worry about leaning over to reach a short standing mailbox or reach up to try and reach in to a mailbox. 

 

If people insisted on having custom made mailboxes, they could. There would be limitations on those as well. Things protruding off of the mailbox would be ok but they would not be allowed to stick out past the actual size of the box itself. Any colors could be as long as the numbers and letters are clearly visible.

 

It is the responsibility of the owner of the property to supply the home with a mailbox that is to code. If someone is renting a home or an apartment, it is still the owner’s responsibility to take care of the mailbox. The manufacturers would have to change the way they design mailboxes so that homeowners can use the designs they produce. If a faulty design were produced on accident, then the manufacturer would have to completely reimburse the person who purchased the mailbox.