I don't spend much time on Substack, but there is one weekly newsletter that I…
Tuesday Recs, April 14th, 2026
This week’s recommendation is something I think most everyone is aware of but I do encounter people who don’t know about it now and again. What is it?
USPS Informed Mail
This is a free service provided by USPS that sends you an email every morning with a digital preview of your incoming mail. You basically get an image of each piece of mail headed your way that day. You also get tracking information for packages.
For those of you who like to get a surprise at the mailbox every day this may not be a great thing. But if you’re like me and you want to know what’s coming (even on vacation when you’ve held your mail) it’s a great service.
You can sign up for it here.
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I’ve been aware of this USPS option for a long time and have always wondered . . . WHY? I can see where it could be useful if you’re away from home and looking for something important to arrive in your mailbox . . . but on a day-to-day basis? I can wait. 😉
That said, I’m glad you’ve found a service that works for you!
My Sil wasn’t getting some of her bills delivered so that’s why she signed up for it. It turns out that someone was taking random things out of her mailbox, but she still had to pay the bills. I don’t think it would be of much use for me as I don’t get much mail. Most of my bills come electronically, and if I could train the mailman to just put all the junk in recycling I would never have to sort the mail!
I did not know about this…but almost all of our mail is junk (except for bills and I don’t need to know about them).
It’s really helpful in my area. I often get pictures of things that are coming that don’t show up for days. It helps to know they have it if I am expecting it, and that they have lost it if it doesn’t show up. Plus I get lots of packages, so it’s nice to know when I should expect them based on my schedule. Good recommendation, Carole.
I have found this to be incredibly helpful… we had a period of time where our mail was not being delivered, so I was able to use the email to notify the post office of ‘missing mail’. However, I think that function has been turned off now, which is troublesome. But it is nice to get a heads up on what will be arriving!
I have had an informed delivery account for a long time, but I didn’t know you could get an email summary each day! I just went in and changed my notification settings to start getting that. Thank you!
It’s worth noting that this shows ALL mail being delivered to the address, not just YOUR mail. So if you and a roommate/spouse/family member are split on the desirability of this service, you need to have a conversation.
Our mail carrier is so unreliable that I have my doubts about this. With him, I could see it creating more problems than solving any of them.
It seems that he has decided to skip delivering our mail on Fridays.
When we have our mail held while we are out of town, he still delivers it.
I contact the PO, they get back to me and tell me they’ve talked to him. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I know that no one gets up in the morning thinking about how they can screw up at work today. But this guy just does not have it together.
How interesting. I think this skated by me when I began to use the online option to “Stop mail delivery” while we are out of town.
We’ve been signed up for this for years now and find it really useful, but I’ve also found that we rarely get everything we’re supposed to. Ironically, we never get the items from USPS that it says we’re supposed to! I don’t worry about the paper mail so much, but it is really useful for knowing when packages are supposed to come, especially when we’re out of town so we can get a neighbor to retrieve them.
I love knowing when to expect packages and like Kat, have found it helpful when there’s been a glitch in our delivery situation. (Like that one time when the delivery person stopped delivering to our part of the route because of the neighbor’s dog, but they notified us about it via the MAIL — so of course, it was just mysterious.)