MANCHESTER, NH – Necessity is the mother of invention, which means that the existence of our monstrous snow mounds due to the unyielding snow has prompted Nashua-based Make-It Labs to devise this brilliant removable “winter mailbox lifehack” to help everyone, from those who’ve had to replace mailboxes obliterated by city plows, to our dear mail carriers, who can’t find our mailboxes, or get to them because of the piles.
The step-by-step is here at the Make-It Labs site.
Credit goes to Adam Shrey, who said he came up with the idea because it was taking him longer to dig out his mailbox than his driveway. He adds that plow drivers on his street have not done any mailbox damage in the 10 years he’s been there. This lifehack, for Shrey, was just a time saver.
Basically, you create an inexpensive removable mailbox with some 2-by-4s. Win-win!
From the site:
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Go to your favorite hardware store and buy the cheapest plastic mailbox you can find. These are usually $12-15. You’ll also need wood roughly 3 feet long and 6″ wide – I chose a short 2 by 4 chunk and a couple pressure treated balusters I had laying around, and four 2-3″ long screws.
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Attach the mailbox to the wood. This is what the screws are for.
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Jam the whole thing into the snowbank wood end first. It may help to sharpen the ends, but this is purely optional.
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That’s it! If another storm comes, just pull it out, wait for the plows to finish wrecking stuff, then stuff it back into the now even more ridiculously huge snow pile. In July, once the berms have receded enough to reveal your original mailbox, just toss this one in the garage, shed, attic, whatever, and save it for next year.
You can learn more about Make-It Labs here. They have a wonderful creative makersspace in Nashua where you can hack, weld, invent, devise, experiment and brainstorm with other like-minded lifehackers.
I did a story about them a few years back, in a past journalistic life for Nashua Patch, which you can read here.
BTW they host an open house every Thursday, for the makerspace-curious. Learn more here.
And closer to home, we have our own Makers in Manchester group. Find them on Facebook, or just boldly join their next Meet-Up (which is always the third Thursday of the month) on Feb. 19 at The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., from 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Special thanks to my Nashua friend Homa Jaferey, for directing me to the site, after I posted this photo of my poor snow-crowded mailbox (those are her yellow shoes in the above photo).
Once again, the power of Facebook, social media, smart and inventive people like the folks at Make-It Labs, and sharing, saves the day.
