Creating Great Letterboxes

Rules of Thumb

There’s no one right way to create a letterbox, but there are a handful of very specific suggestions that almost every top-notch letterbox is going to follow. On the flip side, there are also a lot of wrong ways to create a letterbox, and if you find yourself doing any of these, you should seriously reconsider the choices you’re making.

Marjorie checks out the box — The stamp and the logbook go with the flowers by the box! But Marjorie considered the rubber chickens a sick, sick joke.

Do This

There are certain steps you can do with almost any letterbox to ensure it gets the attention and respect it deserves:

Do use a hand-carved stamp. We can see store-bought stamps at hobby stores and stamp stores ourselves, so show us something new and unique. If you don’t know how to carve a stamp, learn. If you can’t carve very well, so what? It’s still better than a store-bought stamp. If you really don’t want to use one of your own carvings, enlist the help of someone who will carve a stamp for you or even consider a custom-made stamp.
Do use a sturdy container for your letterbox, one that can weather the elements.
Do use a logbook without lines. Lined logbooks just don’t look good when the lines run through rubber stamp images.
Use the heavy-duty freezer-style ZipLock bags rather than the lightweight sandwich-sized bags.

Don’t Do This

While there is not one right way to make a letterbox, there are plenty of wrong ways to do so. Without pointing fingers at specific letterboxes, here are a list of things not to do:

In this day and age of 9/11 paranoia, consider the ramifications of someone accidentally finding your letterbox and mistaking it for a bomb. Don’t plant your letterbox in sensitive locations such as airports, bridges, and national landmarks. Don’t use a PVC pipe capped at both ends as your container—someone might think it’s a pipe bomb. You might want your box to get publicity, but probably not like that! For urban locations in particular where a box is most likely to be mistaken for a bomb, use a clear container for your letterbox and label it clearly inside and out.
In most cases, you should not include an ink pad with your letterbox. In the wintertime, many of them will be frozen solid and useless. If the container should leak, the ink will ruin everything in the box. Ink pads might dry out, get dirty, and suffer all sorts of indignities. Letterboxes stored indoors might be a safe exception to the rule, but in most cases, an ink pad or markers will cause more trouble than they’re worth.
Don’t plant boxes illegally, and don’t plant them on private property without permission. Not only are such boxes subject to confiscation if the land managers discover them, but it puts letterboxers everywhere in a bad light. Many locations with known letterboxing policies can be found in the Land Managers Policies section of the help pages. Fill out the proper permits if they’re required, and don’t plant in locations where it is prohibited.