Persevering with our sequence all by this ultimate 12 months of AoS of the very best 12 printed posts of all time (measured in easy company numbers), correct proper right here’s quantity 7. I’ll admit this one surprises me — and nonetheless it doesn’t, due to don’t virtually all of us truly actually really feel a conundrum about what to do with these items? It’s kinda fulfilling this submit ranks so excessive in our all-time essay recognition.
xoxo, Tsh
The Countdown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1
There’s one issue concerning the facility of handwritten having fun with taking part in playing cards and letters—we love getting them; most of us love sending them. Nonetheless… then what?
Correct proper right here’s my philosophy: Solid off all having fun with taking part in playing cards and letters that don’t add to your happiness. Keep the issues that matter; repurpose every issue else.
Listed beneath are seven factors I love to do with all of the having fun with taking part in playing cards and letters I purchase.
For collaborating in taking part in playing cards and letters you need to protect:
1. Scan & retailer them in your laptop computer pc.
Everytime you actually need to protect them, scan them—they’ll take up masses so much a lot much less room. Create folders in your laptop computer pc, like “2011 Christmas,” or simply “2011” for all letters acquired then, or presumably “Schmidt Household” for all letters acquired through the years from a selected household.
{{Photograph}} by Katie Clemons
2. Tuck them in your scrapbook or journal.
I like combining letters with my very private tales, due to they provide totally completely completely different views to life occasions.
I protect a simple journal like these from my retailer. All I’ve to do is gap punch postcards and letters (similar to the one above from my grandma) and put them in my journal. I do the an similar with images and ticket stubs. I’ll add my very private ideas—voila, a themed assortment.
3. Keep them so you may in the end give them as soon as extra to the author.
A few years before now, my grandma obtained a bundle all through the mail—it was full of about 24 letters and Christmas having fun with taking part in playing cards that she had written to her closest faculty buddy through the years.
Getting these letters as soon as extra was like receiving a time capsule for her. It was the primary time we obtained to hunt out out about my dad’s first Christmas.
Options for doing this:
- Be selective concerning the having fun with taking part in playing cards you retain—just a few pricey associates or relations is so much. You need to give as soon as extra a gaggle of that exact particular person’s story, so solely keep onto the mail that contributes to it.
- Keep every think about a topic so that you simply simply’ll have a set place to file away the objects you need to ship as soon as extra in the end.
- Keep emails in a loyal digital folder so you may embody them as efficiently.
- You would possibly need to be sneaky—write letters and notes to your chosen specific particular person in order that they might be inclined to do the an similar. (E mail and phone weren’t luxuries my grandma and her buddy used. )
For the having fun with taking part in playing cards you need to ditch:
{{Photograph}} by Katie Clemons Journals
Fairly poems and cute pictures are good for repurposing into reward tags. Use them year-round alongside alongside along with your reward giving.
I like to chop out the pictures as I get them—hearts, snowmen, leprechauns. I punch a spot in my cutout and string via a scrap of ribbon or twine. My tags are saved in an envelope with the remainder of my wrapping provides.
2. Repurpose them into scrapbook & journal gildings.
Searching for the appropriate quote or fairly picture to your reminiscence holding? Objects from having fun with taking part in playing cards are good and accessible, notably for Christmas and weddings.
{{Photograph}} by Katie Clemons Journals
3. Repurpose card tops into postcards.
Tremendous easy—tear or in the reduction of the cardboard in half. Recycle the half with the within textual content material materials and names; put a postcard stamp on the facet with the enticing image, and as well as you’ve obtained your postcard.
4. Donate card tops.
Quite a few organizations, from Lady Scouts to YMCA and Kiwanis summer season season camp functions, can use your card tops for his or her craft duties all 12 months extended. Ask your native camps throughout the event that they’re in want.
St. Jude’s Ranch for Childrena company that helps at-risk kids, accepts card tops year-round. They repurpose your card devices into new having fun with taking part in playing cards which might be then bought to boost funds for the group.
In the long term, don’t sweat tossing notes, having fun with taking part in playing cards, and postcards into the recycling bin—it’s not an announcement about how you feel concerning the actual particular person. You appreciated the cardboard on the time. You proceed to respect the particular person.
