All things greeting card organizing
This time of year many of us are reminded of how disorganized our greeting cards are, and this is a twofold problem: blank cards AND the cards we’ve received. When I first meet a new client with these problems, the cards they’ve kept might be thrown in a box at best, or at worst, scattered throughout the home, mixed in with current and important documents. New cards to send may also be in multiple places, never to be found when you need a card.
How to organize cards-received:
Recently I had a client buy two of Bigso’s Greeting Card Organizers from The Container Store for cards she’s received from friends and family. We didn’t realize what a cog in the wheel her cards-received had been until we fine tuned the boxes once she filled them, and then discovered even more stashes of cards in her office. Committing to the card organizing process took us into the nether regions of her office that continually stumped her. Here’s the result:
For the family box on the left, she chose to put family last names on the tabs (smudged here for privacy). The friends box on the right uses classic A-Z tabs. We used Post-It tape for the tab labels.
In these boxes are Christmas cards, sweet notes, wedding invitations, and more. These boxes are commonly used for cards to send, but cards-received is as big a challenge for folks, and these boxes work equally as well for them.
Another client who has kept a lot of cards-received over the years was able to break down her cards into three categories: from her husband, from her niece (pictured below), and from everyone else. She now has three boxes with room to spare for many heartfelt notes to come. This box is also Bigso - the Stockholm Photo Storage Box in blush:
How to organize cards to send:
The client with the blush box full of cards from her niece stored her cards to send in two classic ways:
Her prettiest hand-picked greeting cards are in a flatter letter box, the Stockholm Office Storage Boxes.
Her other greeting cards are in the same gray Bigso box used above. In it she keeps the one-off cards for new baby, retirement, get well, etc.
I keep my own blank cards in two Bigso boxes. I tuck away one for seldom reached-for cards and keep one in the dining room credenza for cards I use often for clients. Exact materials are no longer available, but they are both Bigso’s Office Storage Boxes:
So, between the Greeting Card Organizer, the Photo Storage Boxes, and the flatter Office Storage Boxes, you have three strong options to help wrangle all of the cards coming at you right now and the old favorites that are in all corners of the house. Sure, there are other greeting card organizers on the market, but I prefer Bigso’s since their fiberboard is a prettier and more eco-friendly option than plastic.
The only reason why we keep old cards is to enjoy them, but finding them under a pile of medical bills doesn’t make for a relaxing trip down memory lane! Let this holiday season mark the start of enjoying what was intended to be enjoyable.
How do you organize your cards - both received and card to send? Please share in the comments!
