What to do about the mail????

We are relocating to London for less than a year and I can't figure out what to do with our mail. What do people do about the mail? The post office won't hold it for more than 6 months. We can't forward internationally.

Curious to hear what people do.
Thanks.

We don't move until June, but our plan currently is to see if we can talk to the companies that send us major items of mail and either go paperless for some (like cc bills) or see if they will forward overseas (like student loan bills, scientific journals). If not, we are going to have the important mail forwarded to my parents and the rest (catalogs, etc) will just have to go to heck!

I thought about just forwarding everything from the post office to my parents, but then realized with how many catalogs and crap I get that might be silly.

USPS will forward mail internationally. I got my confirmation the other day. You cant do it online, only on paper. You just have to make the address fit from what my post office told me.

We went paperless as much as possible and pay bills on line. We got a PO box at Mailboxes Etc. and had them forward the mail monthly.  It's not cheap though at $40-50 per mailing.    We cancelled magazines and catalogs because as much as it was nice to see them it wasn't worth the added expense of forwarding.   You can pay your student loan on line and there is no need to get a bill.

USPS will forward mail internationally. I got my confirmation the other day. You cant do it online, only on paper. You just have to make the address fit from what my post office told me.

Any idea of how this can be done if one is already in the UK?? 

For now, I forwarded my mail to my dad's address.  Perhaps if you will only be abroad for a year, you can forward to a family member?

Any idea of how this can be done if one is already in the UK??  

For now, I forwarded my mail to my dad's address.  Perhaps if you will only be abroad for a year, you can forward to a family member?

Print the form off the USPS website, fill it out and mail it to the Postmaster for your US Zip Code. I renew mine every year this way for random stuff that I didn't get around or forgot to change my address with and random family/friends that forget I moved.

Any idea of how this can be done if one is already in the UK?? 

For now, I forwarded my mail to my dad's address.  Perhaps if you will only be abroad for a year, you can forward to a family member?

You could always get someone to fill it out for you here in the US and mail it in for you.

I was told that USPS will forward mail for up to 12 months. (then it must be re-done)

They do not forward junk mail,like catalogs etc.

Also the posters above are correct, you can not do it online.

Thank-you for all your replies. Very helpful.

I plan on having a family member scan and email any important items in .pdf format so that I can see them right away.  Junk mail is to be shredded.  Most of my mail is paperless and goes to my email already. 

I plan on having a family member scan and email any important items in .pdf format so that I can see them right away.

This is what my sister did for me. I went paperless as much as possible but a few things still ended up with her because she was kind enough to let me use her as my forwarding address. It did end up creating more junk mail at her house though because services think you're new to the neighborhood.