199 | Storing Cards & Sentimental Items

It’s great to have greeting cards on hand when you need them An organized storage solution is the key to making sure you could have find what card you need for each occasion when you need it

 It’s Tuesday. And that means I am answering a question that was submitted by a listener. Just like you. If you want me to help with some of your struggles relating to organization, decluttering, setting up routines and systems in your home, take the time right now to go to intentional, edit.com and click on the record.

Now, button that pops up, all you have to do is leave me the question or ask the question that you are wanting an answer as you and I will. Put it on a list to answer on a future tip Tuesday episode. It is as simple as that. So go to intentional, edit.com and click on that little record. Now button that pops up. Leave me a message with the question that you have and that you want me to answer on a tip Tuesday episode. the question that came in today says, have you done an episode on story and greeting cards? I love reading greeting cards of all categories and have hundreds. I need a better way to store them so I can readily find the occasion I need at the time I need. Love of the question and for sure we can help with this. When I first read this, I actually had to go back and read it again because when I first read it, I thought it was asking about greeting cards that someone has given you, and you are keeping [00:02:00] these. But after going back, I think it’s about greeting cards that you have, that you would like to give out and that you would like to use for that special occasion. So let’s take the time here to clarify so that we can really address, uh, both scenarios and get a handle on the organization for. Either one of those situations, it doesn’t matter either way. It’s important to keep only the cards that are meaningful to you if they’re cards to use You would be keeping the cards that you are actually going to use. If the cards were given to you and they have a special message. And you are hanging on to them. Put them someplace like in a nice box or a storage container where you can take them out and read them every so often. If you are not looking at them and you are not keeping them and you have not gone back to them, then I want you to think about why you are keeping them. Why is it important to you to keep these things? If the card was given to you and all it has is a signature on it. Then I would encourage you to. Probably not keep that card. It’s taking up space and there’s really not anything meaningful in it. If there is a special message or something, those would be more along the cards that if this space is available to you, then. It would be okay to keep that have a designated storage space. For where these cards can be stored. And then once you exceed that space that go through those and think about, and reassess, what is really important to you? What cards do you want to keep? What are you going to go back and look at? And what can you get rid of? Sometimes in the moment we think we need to keep something.

And then years later we think to ourselves, why have I been burdening myself all these years of storing these things that I haven’t taken the time to look at, and I don’t really need or want any longer. Longer. So assess what is important to you. If your space is limited and it’s really a struggle, but these things are very, very important that think [00:04:00] about the option of. A digital option, take a picture or scan them and then save them in a digital way. Instead of saving the physical cards. That eliminates the need for space, but it still gives you ability to open up that file. See those cards, see the handwriting, read the messages, and then you could still have them without taking up valuable space. If you are in a scenario with space is limited. Now for cards that you are keeping that you’re purchasing ahead of time and you’re keeping so that you have them available to give to someone else or sick or put in the mail to get to other people. I prefer to organize those cars by occasion. I have one container for these it’s a tall shoe box. Storage container from the container store. It’s clear. I can link it for you. Each podcast episode has a blog post, so I can link it for you there, but the tall shoe box storage container from the container store, I use those all over my house for all kinds of storage.

And that was the perfect size container for me to organize my cards that I have, and that I keep ahead of time. all of my cards are in order in those. And for this question, it sounds more like one box might not be enough. They might need more than one box. But again, I would encourage you to pair down the card you have. If you say that you really love the cards. If you have been collecting them for some time, Go back and look through them and see what I really give this out. And what I really use this, if the messages are old or the words are things that you would say anymore, you can. Put all those in a bag and then donate that bag and see if it would be fitting for someone else to use those. If you aren’t going to use them, there is not any point in keeping them. So when you are sorting them out by occasion, that would be a great time to have a pile for the ones that you’re not going to use.

And you could donate to someone else. Now we need to determine [00:06:00] what is staying and what is going. And as you are sorting through and determining that the sorting is going to be important because you are going to sort them into categories for storage. If you have specific people, you are purchasing the cards for, you might want to think about putting a pile in place for each specific person as well.

So you would have the occasion and then you would also have some for those specific people. I like to use a piece of card stock that is taller than the height of the card. And I choose the card stock because it’s a little bit thicker. So then I separate each category by that piece of colored card stock. And at the top of the piece, I will print off a label. You can use a label maker for this.

You could print using us traditional Pritcher, or you could even hand write something, use it as a label so that you have the different sections. Like birthday, Halloween kid’s birthday sympathy, wedding, baby, whatever the cards are and the categories that you’ve determined, each one of those will have a label. And a great way to do that is just to use the cardstock print, the label, separate the different sections of the box to the boxes that you have.

And because it sticks up a little. Higher than the cards and it is clearly labeled and it is usually a brighter color. That it makes it easy for you to see where each section starts and then stops because the new section is beginning. So that’s how I choose to organize a greeting cards in my home. And I have referenced that system. And I know other people that are using that too, and it seems to work well. One great thing about that is you could see when you have a lot. I have one category and then, you know, not to purchase more of those until you have given a lot of those out. And you can simplify what you have so that your collection, is it lopsided if you will, [00:08:00] or, you know, heavier on one section. And not as heavy on the other or you’re missing birthday cards, but those are the ones you said now frequently, then you can stock up on those. And instead of the ones that you have too many AF. just like every other item in your home. When you take the time to organize, that means you could find what you need when you need it, when you’re looking for it and you need to use it, it is always aware. You decided to organize it and keep it so you can always find what you need when you’re looking for it.

And you are more likely to use what you have when it is easily accessible and easy for you to find. Don’t forget to submit your questions for me to answer on a future tip Tuesday episode, by going to intentional edit.com clicking on the record now button and leaving me a message that I can answer on a future tip Tuesday episode.