Time seems to continually be a dwindling element and scarce resource in our lives. The Western World has embraced a busy lifestyle—especially here in the United States and continues to work more hours and take fewer vacations. This coupled with the onslaught of junk-mail, email (which mostly consists of spam now), Twitter and RSS feeds to post and view, Facebook updates to post and friends’ accounts to review and comment on, faxes to shred and texts to respond too, all consume our much needed down time to recuperate and rest. 

All of these technologies are a great benefit for us to better keep in touch with loved ones, but it keeps us mentally exhausted because the world of digital content is always being updated. What would be beneficial is a way to begin merging the way information is delivered to us and utilizing the technologies mentioned above to access it. There are a few companies that have had the brilliant idea to blend our current digital delivery systems and parcel services together, thus making life more convenient and the mundane task of opening mail much quicker—enter the virtual mailbox. The virtual mailbox functions much like a normal post office box at the nearest post office, but instead of creating the burden of checking a post office box, which wastes time in driving to pick up the mail, and wastes more time by requiring the user to siphon through junk mail, the parcel mail is delivered digitally to your email inbox. 

Again, this merger of old and new is a huge time saving benefit. The convenience of being able to check and read mail from anywhere there is an internet connection—which is everywhere now—allows the virtual mailbox customer to eliminate the time dedicated to opening, reading, and if necessary, shredding the parcel letters. Further, virtual mailbox companies that are dedicated to quality customer service, like Traveling Mailbox (www.travelingmailbox.com), sort out the junk mail from the mail that is actually important—thus saving even more time. 

Traveling Mailbox will send their customers an email with a picture of the front of the envelope they received and from there the customer will decide whether they want them to shred it, open and scan it, or simply hold on to it until a later date. If there is any piece of parcel that the customer feels uncomfortable letting them open, then they can forward it to any other physical mailing address of the customer’s choice.

Obviously this makes the tedious tasks of checking and filtering mail much easier and more convenient, thus saving time for anyone who is a customer of one of these companies. Placing the burden of postal mail on someone else’s shoulders is a freeing experience. Plus, the ability to become more independent is a mental relief. Once postal mail is digitally organized and delivered to an address that never changes, an individual has the ability and fortune of traveling without fear of missing important letters and also the peace of mind that comes with the security of knowing that while they are away, no one is able to break into a mailbox and steal sensitive material. The Post Office and the endless amounts of overdone advertisements and credit card offers are, unfortunately, not going away anytime soon. But, with Traveling Mailbox and a virtual mailbox, we can claim some of our lives back by not wasting precious time spending hours sifting through junk mail—life is too short to waste and Traveling Mailbox knows that.