Storage Zones and Backlog Recovery

You know the shift has gone feral when a stamped parcel is hiding beneath three unfinished boxes, the boat pile is leaning toward the floor, and every customer wants the package facing the wall. Stop there. Cat Mail Co. does not put you under a shift countdown, so clutter is recoverable. Wrong routing or storage can still return or damage parcels, though, so quit feeding the pile and rebuild a clear parcel flow.

The goal is simple: every parcel gets one visible state and one home. A state tells you what must happen next. A zone is the shelf bay, table edge, or marked floor space reserved for that state. Once those two ideas match, the post office feels less like a cardboard ambush and more like your own tidy postal workshop.

The Eight-Zone Parcel System

Use these as planning labels, not as fixed game locations. Rotate or shrink each zone to fit the rooms and shelf space available in your save. When a parcel has a special storage property, place it in the matching unlocked room or hold it apart until you can identify the correct treatment.

Parcel state	Tool or check	Next physical action
Unprocessed	Destination label, scale, scanner, and any unlocked inspection tool	Place outgoing mail that still needs work in the intake zone with its main label visible. Take one parcel at a time.
In-progress	The processing tool currently needed	Keep the parcel on the workbench or beside that tool. Do not mix it into storage while a required check or mark is missing.
Completed	Final destination, weight, and handling check	Place the finished outgoing parcel in a small handoff zone, then move it to outbound storage.
Customer pickup	Recipient name or partial-name clue, plus visible description clues	Turn the useful clues toward the aisle and store the parcel near the counter, away from boat mail.
Outbound	Destination marks and the Captain's announced destinations	Sort ready outgoing mail by destination. Move only parcels for the current trip into the dock lane.
Returned	Destination, route, weight, handling marks, and damage	Move anything sent back by the Captain into the return zone for a full recheck. Do not load it again without finding the problem.
Damaged	Visible damage and the repair workshop, once available	Isolate the parcel near the repair area until it can be repaired, checked again, and restaged.
Night-hold	Moonlight, an unlocked night-inspection tool, or the matching special room	Quarantine an unresolved parcel with its known marks facing out. Inspect it later instead of guessing at an unknown property.

Spoiler-light night rule: Some parcel properties become visible under moonlight. If you do not understand a night clue or have not opened the needed room, use the night-hold zone. It is a waiting area, not permission to guess.

The completed zone should be a handoff point, not another mountain. Finished customer-send parcels belong in outbound storage. Customer pickup mail follows its own short route from the pickup shelf to the counter, so do not feed it through the completed handoff.

Make Every Box Readable

Face destination labels toward the aisle. If a box must lie flat, turn the label upward.
Keep handling marks visible beside the destination label whenever the parcel shape allows it.
Store pickup parcels one layer deep when their names or description clues must be checked quickly.
Use low, stable spaces for large or awkward boxes so they do not hide smaller labels.
Leave a small gap between different zones. Empty space is a border, not wasted storage.
Point every parcel in a zone the same way. A sideways box becomes an easy warning that it still needs attention.

Irregular boxes will refuse to form a perfect wall, because cardboard apparently has artistic goals. Do not force them into gaps that hide labels or make the stack unstable. Give odd shapes a low shelf end or a floor rectangle inside the correct zone.

Compact Post Office Shelf Plan

This plan keeps every state in one tight room. The positions are optional; preserve the short handoffs and clear aisle.

Area	Zone	Setup
Counter-side shelf	Customer pickup	Keep names and description clues facing the aisle.
Counter-side shelf end	Unprocessed	Reserve one intake stack for outgoing parcels that still need tools.
Workbench and tool edges	In-progress	Keep each parcel beside the next tool it needs.
Small tray or shelf square	Completed	Allow only a few finished parcels here before moving them to outbound storage.
Dock-side shelf	Outbound	Split it into a small current-trip lane and a larger later-trip reserve.
Back wall or low shelf	Returned, damaged, and night-hold	Give each exception its own bay. They can share a shelf row, but never a pile.

This arrangement keeps uncertain mail out of the normal flow without demanding a whole room for each problem. The aisle between the counter and dock stays open, which matters more than making every box line up like a parade.

Expanded Post Office Shelf Plan

Use this plan when more rooms are open and you have longer shelf runs. It separates fast-moving mail from parcels that must wait.

Area	Zones	Flow
Customer wing near the counter	Customer pickup	Shelf by visible recipient clues, with bulky parcels low and accessible.
Outgoing work lane	Unprocessed → in-progress → completed	Run customer-send parcels forward through the tools without crossing the pickup aisle.
Dock wing	Outbound	Group the reserve by destination and keep the current trip nearest the dock.
Recheck bench	Returned	Keep returned parcels beside the tools used to repeat destination, weight, and handling checks.
Repair-side holding area	Damaged	Hold damaged parcels near the repair workshop without blocking its work surface.
Night or special-room side	Night-hold	Keep unresolved night parcels near the place where their next inspection will happen.

This is not the one perfect layout. Cat Mail Co. is built around organizing the post office your way, and usable space changes as rooms open and piles clear. Use whichever plan makes parcel states obvious from the aisle. A pretty pile is optional; a readable pile is useful.

Six-Step Backlog Reset

Use this routine when you cannot tell what is finished, customer mail is buried, or the dock lane has swallowed the room.

Stop receiving. Do not ring the counter bell or pull more parcels from the backlog or boat intake. Finish the parcel already in your paws only if its next step is clear.
Clear the workbench. Take each box beside the scale, scanner, or stamping area and identify its state. Finish known checks. Move anything uncertain to night-hold or the correct exception zone. Leave the tool surfaces empty.
Isolate exceptions. Pull out every returned, damaged, and unresolved night parcel. Make three separate groups. If a returned parcel is also damaged, hold it in the damaged zone until it is repaired, then give it the full return recheck.
Sort by state. Build the unprocessed, in-progress, completed, customer pickup, and outbound zones before worrying about destination. If you cannot name a parcel's state, it does not belong in a normal shelf row.
Sort by route. Check outbound destinations against the Captain's announced trip. Put eligible mail in the dock lane and keep later-trip mail grouped by destination in outbound storage. Sort customer pickup mail by its visible recipient clues instead of mixing it with boat cargo.
Resume one request at a time. For a send request, take one parcel from unprocessed storage, run it through every needed tool, and place it in outbound storage. For a collection request, retrieve one parcel from customer pickup and bring it to the counter. Continue receiving only after both paths are readable again.

If the reset uncovers a mark you do not understand, hold the parcel for inspection. Never guess just to make a shelf look empty. One honest exception box causes far less trouble than a damaged return joining the pile later.

Reduce Outbound Buildup

Outbound state, destination check, next action: split ready boat mail into a small current-trip lane beside the dock and a larger later-trip reserve in storage. The Captain may not visit every destination on the same trip, so only matching parcels enter the dock lane.

Group the reserve by destination, with every destination mark facing the aisle.
Move current-trip parcels forward before adding newly completed outgoing mail.
When the boat is physically full, stop loading. Return overflow to its marked destination zone instead of building an unstable dock heap. Do not rely on a fixed parcel count; box shapes and the current build affect usable space.
Prioritize large boxes that are blocking useful storage when their destination is available, but keep correct processing ahead of size.
Keep customer pickup mail out of the outbound reserve, even when collection is slow. Give bulky pickup parcels an accessible low area so later requests do not require dismantling the shelf.

Some mail will wait for another customer or boat trip. That is normal. The aim is not to clear every shelf each shift; it is to make every waiting parcel easy to identify and move when its turn arrives.

Solo and Co-op Flow

Crew	Parcel flow	Handoff rule
Solo	Finish one customer-send parcel through the tools before starting another. Store customer pickup parcels separately and retrieve them only when requested.	Keep the completed handoff mostly empty. A parcel left there means outbound routing is unfinished.
Two players	One cat handles the counter and processing tools. The other manages pickup shelves, outbound storage, exceptions, and the dock.	The processor places finished outgoing mail only in the completed zone. The sorter checks it again before moving it to outbound storage.
Three or four players	Split counter and intake, processing tools, pickup and exception storage, and dock loading as the crew allows.	One player owns a parcel until it reaches a named handoff zone. Call out any missing check instead of passing a half-processed box from paw to paw.

The same two paths work at every crew size: customer send: unprocessed → in-progress → completed → outbound, and customer collection: customer pickup → counter. Returned, damaged, and night-hold mail step aside until their problem is resolved. Keep those paths visible and even a ceiling-high backlog becomes what Cat Mail Co. does best: one satisfying parcel after another.

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