Question for Americans regarding address lines

[Alfred001]

I'm filling out a form and I'm required to give the following information

Mailing Address – In Care Of
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
City/Town
District/Country/Province/
State Postal Code/Zip Code
Country

Now, I have two questions:

1) What does "in care of" mean?

Is that supposed to be my name or the name of the owner of the house or the name on the postal box?

2) What goes into address line 1 and what goes in 2?

I just have a street name and number and I live in a house, I don't need 2 address lines.

NOTE: This is an American form, so I need answers from folks from the US. I think what address line 1 and 2 are might be different in the UK and elsewhere.

[iNow]

1) If one is sending mail somewhere they’re the primary resident, putting in care of can be used to acknowledge that primary person or business.

For example, when I mail something to my grandparent who lives in a retirement home, I put their name, then “In care of NAME OF RETIREMENT HOME.”

Similarly, I might mail something to myself at work and put my name, then In Care of MY EMPLOYER NAME.

You can likely ignore this in most cases and just put your own name then move on to the address line 1.

2) Likewise, in most cases you can ignore address line 2. It’s often used to put an apartment or building number or suite. For example:

Line 1: 8642 Main Street

Line 2: Bldg. 5A, Room  2781 (or apartment 23B, as another example). 

 

In short, blanks/nulls are perfectly acceptable for both items. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by iNow