Challenges of a traveling artist: receiving mail

BUSINESS ON THE ROAD

Getting things shipped to you on the road is tough. Of course like everyone, I need my tax info, products for my business, my skincare supplements, and anything else important to me to come in the mail. But when you’re a traveling artist road tripping around the country in an RV, you don’t exactly have a mailing address. 

So what do I do? Here are some solutions and a rundown of their pros and cons.

PO BOXES

I can always set up a PO Box, but it’s not a perfect solution. For one, it adds to my long list of things to do before I move. When packing up to switch locations, hoses need to be packed, delicate items put away, plants secured before towing, and hooking it all up to the truck — driving up to the Post Office to cancel my account is just one more task on a long to do list.

Plus, it’s $65 for six months, and we move more often than that — often staying in one place for only one month. The guy at the counter told me if I physically come in before the 3 month date to cancel they’ll give me half the fee back. But ultimately you have to pay for at least 3 months each time you get a box. So PO boxes are helpful and I do use them, but they can be an extra cost if the accounts are closed too early each time. 

A good thing about PO Boxes is that the size of the box really doesn’t matter. If I get a big package shipped to me even though I only rented a tiny box, they’ll hold onto the item for you for about a week. So you can pay for a small box but still get big items. 

Make sure to double check all these policies are still true on the Post Office website, since they change all the time, or visit your local office.

All in all, I do use them. I have one right now where we are in Arizona. They’re super useful when you don’t have any other way to get mail. But the flexibility could be better.

ASK MOM TO GET YOUR MAIL

My first solution to the problem of receiving mail was to have my mom collect it for me. In fact, I’ve kept my official address as my parents’ address since I moved out of the house in 2016. First because of laziness, and then convenience. Let’s discuss.

If you don’t have parents who can get your mail for you, you can substitute them with a sibling, a friend, or whoever. Make sure you feel comfortable with that person opening your mail for you and finding out things that might be in that mail: financial info, personal info, test results, acceptance letters, etc. Of course I trusted my mom, so naturally that’s how it went for me.

It’s perfect for receiving information 100% reliably, but obviously useless for receiving actual things. Any time a piece of “important-looking” mail comes, my mom will open the mail for me and send me a text picture of what’s inside. I know I won’t miss out on any bills, tax forms, or important messages that come unexpectedly because they have a steady address to be sent to. Of course, if it’s something I physically need, my parents will need an address to forward it to. But at least I’ll get the message. 

A disadvantage to listing your permanent address as someone else’s is that it might be illegal (technically you’re lying to the government?) but as I don’t actually have an address to list, that’s truly the best place to come looking for me if I ever need to be contacted by the feds 😂 And for legal purposes, I’ll only be allowed to vote in elections according to that address, and pay taxes according to that address, and my car insurance rates are affected by that address, etc. 

I don’t see any of this as a big worry or inconvenience, but it’s a topic worth considering before you go ahead and do this for yourself. I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

As a traveling artist, I’ve got to schedule my mail around my travel or my travel around my mail. 

Otherwise, you can have items left behind in another state and never get them at all. This happened to me once and I lost $200 worth of stuff. I couldn’t get a refund from the companies, because it was successfully delivered and everyone did their job correctly — except me, who moved out of state before my mail came. The mail took longer than expected and I HAD to go. But it was a loss all the same, and my fault. 

So timing is vital. After that loss I tightened up my awareness around ordering items and I quit buying things online when at all possible. Some items you can only get via the internet, like a lot of the products I have made for A Cup of Cloudy, because the manufacturers are online-only. 

One thing I get online are my skincare supplements. I’ve got a monthly subscription, so they come every month on the same day. Of course I’m not always in the same place, so I update the mailing address on my account every month. Some months I have to cancel and resubscribe because I’m actually on the road at the time it should be delivered.  

Stay organized. If it helps, mark everything in your calendar to help you remember. What day are you arriving in a place? When are you leaving? When should a package be arriving? Allow at least 5 days of wiggle room. When do your subscriptions renew? I list everything in my calendar on my phone so I can change it when I need to. 

RV PARKS HAVE MAILBOXES

Not always, but usually an RV park will have a mailing room. If you’re a traveling artist who travels with a mobile tiny home like me, listen up!

I stayed in a cute RV park in New Mexico for a month this winter. It was the type that people actually lived and stayed in long term. I met one guy who had lived there for 16 years! Naturally, they have to get their mail there. So the office had a little store, bathroom, kitchen common area, and a mail room. 

A giant benefit to this is that the mail room was no extra cost. But, of course you had to be staying in the park to use the address, and it was a couple hundred per month. It’s not worth it JUST for the mailbox. Receiving reliable mail is an added perk of the whole experience of staying at a park. 

The mailroom at this place was in a common area. It was essentially a room where the office lady set everyone’s mail in a pile and it was connected to the shared kitchen. So if you’re worried about someone stealing your goods, this might bring you stress. However, I never had anything come up missing. 

GENERAL DELIVERY FOR QUICK STAYS

The Post Office will actually accept your mail for you for free if you list it as a “general delivery” alongside your name and their address. If your traveling artist adventures take your through a town just for the weekend or you only need one package while you’re there, this could be a great solution for you. 

Every time I’ve done this, I’ve called ahead to double check that it was okay and they provide this service. They always say yes, but I like to check anyway and let the workers know so they can be expecting it. You list your name and “general delivery” in the recipient section, and then the Post Office’s address. When it comes, the Post Office doesn’t contact you so keep an eye on the tracking info. You bring your photo ID with you when you pick it up to prove you’re who the mail is for. Make sure to tell the postal worker thank you!!

The only con is that you can’t do this forever. The Post Office doesn’t operate for free. It’s supposed to be a service for people who are in between homes, traveling, or have a strange circumstance. I never use general delivery more than once at a single location. However, I also don’t feel bad for using it because for one, they offer the service for it to be used. And for two, the amount of money I spend at the Post Office shipping out art is mind boggling. Me and the Post Office are long time friends. 

TRAVELING ARTIST PROBLEMS, SOLVED

Taking an art business on the road brings unique challenges. Everyone sees the highlights I post on social media, but not everything is without problems! I hope this article has cleared up some of the mystery behind operating a business while traveling and offered some solutions for you if you’re planning to do the same.

Have a solution or tip to add? Feel free to post it in the comments!