Many of my clients find it tricky to let go of cards – so hold onto stacks of birthday cards or engagement, wedding, baby, new job, another baby, retirement congratulation cards. They feel guilty about letting them go or have a fantasy ideas about cutting them up and making their own cards – which can happen but don’t let a back log build up.
Well, the intention of a card is to convey a message – and once that message has been conveyed, received, appreciated and mulled over you can let them go.
I’m not saying get rid of every card – of course keep the really special ones or ones that appeal to your taste. You could place them in a memory box or drawer, or frame them. Wedding or new baby cards could be put in a album – but only if you’re realistic about if you can actually be bothered and honest about if this will really happen.
I once saw a lovely idea where a mother had framed her child’s favourite card from each birthday year – so there was a sort of count up on the child’s wall. I’m not sure it lasted beyond double figures – in terms of the child no longer wanting them up – but it’s a great thing to start if you have a little one.
A few years ago I bought this wooden heart which I wasn’t really sure what to do with. And with a young baby I forgot Valentine’s Day – so I wrote on the heart. Dah dah = Mrs Romance!
I’ve kept up the tradition for the last 13 years. It’s great to look back at where we were as a couple – babies, moving house, getting a dog and seeming to still quite like each other along the way.
We leave the heart hanging for a few weeks then it gets put away to be rediscovered the following year – though in 2013 we forgot … we must have bee too loved up to remember – or the opposite!
