Why I Got What I Got

Rubbermaid Mailbox

For some reason, the people who lived in house before us didn’t get mail delivered and so didn’t have a mailbox or anything. I don’t know what that’s all about – no matter how hard you try to keep all your mail forwarded to your main address, something important (tax bill?) is going to end up addressed to your house.

Materials: So I looked at lots and lots of mailboxes. The old fashioned metal boxes don’t get very good reviews for durability or water-proof-ness. We’re not really into craftsy wooden mailboxes (windmills, mermaids, ships, etc.). Plastic boxes seem to be most durable and least obnoxious looking so we limited our search to those.

Features: Since we have little kids, I knew I wanted a box with a second door on the back of the box so the kids could enjoy running out to check the mail without having to stand in the street. I also wanted a secondary opening at the bottom for newspapers and small packages. And, I wanted it to be large enough that if we got a small package, the mailman would be able to fit it in so we could reduce the number of “come pick up your package at the post office” slips. I also wanted something that would easily slide and mount onto a post so I wouldn’t have to figure out any kind of elaborate mounting mechanism.

Competition: I really liked the Step 2 Mailmaster mailbox, which seems to be very common in our neighborhood, but Carrie nixed it – thought it looked to plasticy and like a kid’s toy. So we went with the Rubbermaid mailbox which I guess looks a little more mailbox-ish and a little less kid’s toy-ish.