Living in England where you either use a post box or a post office to mail things, I can’t imagine how on earth the Post Office would go about collecting from your house. Do they ring the bell and ask if you have anything for them to collect or what? Wouldn’t that be an enormous waste of the postman’s time?

Each house has a little box out front, with a red flag you can raise if you’ve left mail to be picked up. The postman visits your box to drop off and pick up mail. If there’s no mail for you that day, and no red flag, the postman skips your house. —Jeffrey

On the subject of stamps: until very recently we in the UK also had to tear off a stamp from a perforated strip and lick the back in order to moisten the adhesive. My mother likes to send Christmas cards to everyone she has ever known, and this results in a lot of stamps needing licking. Her solution is to use her cat to do the moistening duty. The cat likes to bury his nose in the crook of one of his hind legs when he snoozes, and that leaves a very wet patch on his leg. I think you can guess the rest!