"Special Mail" Organization

 What do you do with your holiday cards, or any other "special mail" that you want to keep? 

FIRST, I am here giving you permission if you don't have a lot of room, and have too many special cards every year, please let them go, recycle them and make room for the ones to come in 2021. I usually take that route- I love getting the cards and having them hang in my hallway, for the holiday season, then take them down, add any new addresses or birthdays to my contacts in my phone and recycle them. 

ALSO it is OK to keep them as long as it is with intention and they are kept in an organized way. Piled all over the house, or shoved into a box that is shoved in a closet is not what I am talking about. This year I decided to try something different, I am going to make it a goal to keep all of the special mail (my kids get cards from all of the grandparents for all of the holidays plus all of the holiday cards, baby or graduation announcements, and wedding invitations ) in this nice and neat little package! It is a quick and easy way to make a small "scrapbook" of events that happened that year in your life!

I did most of 2020 in this neat package and it doesn't take up much space and keeps them all together! It is super simple and for those of you who might not be ready to let the cards be recycled, this is a great plan for you to try. I say MOST because I did not have this idea at the beginning of 2020 so some of the things I had already let go of.

1. The first step is to create a place for you to keep all of your "special mail". Do not keep it with your other mail, but keep it in a place you will remember where it is and can quickly add to it. I keep mine in the drawer near my hallway board where I hang all of my "special mail" so when it no longer is on display I know where it goes so at the end of the year I can put them all together! I have a hutch in my entryway that I have a drawer in that I keep all of the different holiday clothespins in to hang all of my special mail on. When I first moved into this house I made a giant wall "organizer. It was made to create a place for all of my holiday cards, it quickly became my go to place for all of my IMPORTANT mail such as invitations, or school dates, birthday and thank you cards or pictures of my nieces and nephews!! I love that it matches my house decor so I can keep it up all year long and everyone knows where to go to find important dates or if they open the mail they know where these items go! This has NOTHING to do with our other mail. Those are different systems! I don't want my bills to be decor for anyone who comes into my home to see first thing... 

2. You will need a hole punch and either ribbon, or wire, this year I used a pipe cleaner! You

can use either a single hand punch like I did, or if you have a 2 or 3 hole punch that will make this project a little easier! But if all you have is a single punch it will still be an easy project!

3. Put all of your papers into a pile. It is up to you if you want them arranged by size, or time of year, or just random! I started with the smallest so I could make sure the holes were in the right place. Then I used that as a template to line all of the holes up and punched all of the cards. This is where a 2 or 3 hole punch saves you some time. Just make sure you put each card in the same place so the holes line up!

4. Last, it's time to use your ribbon, wire, or like me, pipe cleaner, and feed it through the holes and

tie it up pretty and you are DONE! ALL of your cards are in one place and they will stay together in one place! I used a card from our Milk delivery as the cover because it says 2020 and I can now quickly see that these are my cards from 2020!! And finally I keep them in my "memory box" It is a small photo box, and I keep that on a shelf in my closet. I keep little notes from my kids and husband or other "special" things that I do not want to let go of! 

When there is intention of keeping something special, it makes it so much easier to 1. keep it small and not to let EVERY little item become "THE" special item. It keeps them all in one place so when you have a new item you know where it goes. If you are ever having a down day, or need to bring your spirits up you know where to go to give yourself a smile. 2. Your loved ones will know what is important to you if the time comes when you can't express what is important to you.  While we are talking about this, please let your loved ones know that these are special to YOU, and there is no obligation to keep them after you are gone, unless it is also something special to them. YOU may love them now, but when you are gone it might not be special to someone else. Also if your whole house is filled with "special, can't live withouts" it will be too over whelming for the people who come in and have to make those decisions! Don't make life without you any harder than it already will be! Keep things with intentions and keep things that make you happy!