Do not mail these items in paper envelopes

Have you ever expected a small item in your mail, an envelope with a hole in it, and you couldn’t find the item? According to one postal worker, it happened to me when my childhood friend told me to send me a special pen. I took him to Reddit to warn the rest..

People sometimes assume that the item has been stolen. It makes sense if it’s something of value like a jewel. However, many of the lost items are coins, unlabeled keys, and candies. They are not the target of thieves. The criminal is a robot.

Why small things don’t pass through the mail sorter

This video The email scan machine shows a problem. Envelopes are whipped along a series of conveyor belts and bend sharply as they pass through the machine. Things that can’t be bent can come off the envelope, fall to the bottom of the machine, and sometimes clog the piece (and wrinkle the next few letters in the process).

Items that are not mailed in a paper envelope

According to the United States Postal Service, the following items cannot be placed in paper envelopes.

• pen
• pencil
• Key ring
• Bottle cap
• “Other similar strangely shaped items”

A postman chime on a Reddit thread says he’s also seeing a lot of the following:

• Keys and key chains
• Lockets, bracelets, rings
• “Coins! Oh, God, coins”
• USB drive
• Memory card containing a small video game cartridge
• rain
• tablet
• hearing aid

Lists found on some college mail room websites ( This one) Indicates that the USPS does not allow paper clips or pins for email. No rule was found in any of the official USPS publications, but if you want to be safe, we recommend that you don’t mail loose pins and use staples instead of paper clips.

Why is it that small shipments are not kept safe when I write “process manually”?

There is a myth that you can write certain magical spells on envelopes and keep them away from big bad machines.But the truth is that most envelopes are not processed or read by humans. rear They passed through a scanning machine (even if read by humans). So “manually handle” and “don’t bend” are screaming so much.

How to properly mail keys, USB drives, paper clips and other small objects

If you need to mail small items such as keys or jewelry, Use padded envelopes.. One of the reasons is that they are supplied to different machines and that the padding is not as easy to tear as a plain paper envelope.

Instead of padded envelopes, you can use a hard paperboard mailer, or you can secure a small item to a large one, such as sandwiching it between two sheets of paperboard, to create your own mailer. (One redditor said he successfully mailed the key by taping it into a chocolate bar.)

You can also request that the envelopes be processed individually, by taking them to a person at the post office instead of writing something on the outside of the envelope.You will pay Extra charge that cannot be machinedAnd the postal worker puts it aside.