In my quest to find the missing vehicle ownership the other day, I expanded my purge zone to my bedside night table. I keep lots of stuff in there. Stacks of photos in those paper jacket/envelopes from the good ‘ol days of print photography, an MP3 player (apparently passé in technology), a pile of old pay stubs, new cheques, and greeting cards.
Lots of old greeting cards.
Mostly Anniversary and Valentine cards. From me to hubby and hubby to me.
I don’t know why I have kept them.
So this prompted a question to be thrown out to the masses. Are you one of those people that keep every greeting card that was ever given to you over the years? Birthday cards, Anniversary cards, Christmas cards, Valentine cards? If you do keep them…why do you keep them?
Today I actually tossed mine. Purge mode has now taken a firm hold.
and yes, I am still looking for the damn vehicle ownership….
I have a special box I keep all my special cards in, and why ? Well for one, some have my dad’s messages to me and now he is gone and I can still read these and see his hand writing and there is comfort in that. I have all the special cards from my kids and I am pretty sure there is no explanation needed for that one 🙂
Sentimental hand written notes from passed relatives are definite keepers 🙂 I kept the kids hand-made cards for years, then finally purged those when they became adults or gave them back 🙂
With me, I have sort of a push-pull relationship with greeting cards. I’m going to be really, brutally honest here.
When I need to send a card, I groan and yes I do hate spending the $5 or whatever inflated cost on a card only for it to be tossed or thrown in a closet or drawer somewhere. So I would prefer sending an e-card… but as a writer, I’ve been brainwashed to believe that this is not always a “personal” approach to sending wishes or greetings.
I guess I’m a bit of a hypocrite because I too am one of those people who, when I receive a card, puts them into a box (it’s a really nice IKEA one) for my travels down memory lane–which rarely ever transpire. The box just gets heavier and heavier.
Part of me (and this is the push-pull I feel) wants to receive cards that I can put on display. Another part of me wishes everyone would send e-cards–which I also save. I PDF them and save them to my computer files.
I don’t know what the answer is and think perhaps I need therapy on this. lol
I love IKEA boxes, they are so very pretty and give you the PERFECT place and reason to store your clutter. 🙂 I too think the greeting card companies have the general public over a barrel (wonder if their CEO’s are required to use/send them?), there are sappy cards for every occasion. I have only received a few e-cards, never thought to save them as .pdf’s, I just turfed them after I read them. As for you needing therapy, take 5 for a chigger of Bailey’s and reflect on who sent you what and keep the memories alive. Toss the cards, or as my dear Aunt Lydia below (another Ukrainian!) said, donate the fronts to your local school so kids can recycle and reuse them. Speaking of Bailey’s, we need to get together for a smidgeon 🙂
Yes, would be absolutely lovely!!! (Re: The Baileys) I do tend to use cards for gift tags… so another good use.
All the Christmas ones, I do save, however. They go into my scrapbook.
I too kept old cards, (except the Christmas ones), but one day, I started cleaning up and relived some long ago memories of nephews and niece birthday wishes when there were only 3 of them, my mother’s cards that I inherited when she passed away, my deceased nephew when he signed his first cards, my great-niece after her visit during one cold Christmas, along with a handkerchief she enclosed in the card, various “little” friends as they learned to hold a crayon or pencil, (those I dated as they were received) and of course my son’s cards.
I looked at them, relived the memories, then sorted them all into “keep” and “out” piles. I did keep some but the rest I recycled by cutting off the fronts and burning the rest. The first chance I got, I took all the fronts of those cards, along with the fronts of Christmas cards I had and donated them to the kindergarten class at the local school. There, the children will use them when they make cards for their parents and the cycle will continue. I feel better now that I know the cards are put to good use instead of going into a landfill or into a stove. And who knows, maybe some of the cards I cherished for years will now be cherished by a new set of parents for years to come. That makes me feel good.
Now that is a fabulous idea Lydia…take the fronts of the cards to schools to be reused! Brilliant! 🙂 You are definitely Baba’s daughter 🙂
Nope, never kept any…’destroy all evidence’ is my motto…
Betty
🙂 I aspire to be like you…