Letters and cards

Over the years I have collected cards and letters I have received for Christmas, Easter, birthdays and other occasions.

Every 3-4 years I sift through them and toss a few of the ones I no longer want to keep.

This year I have decided to give myself a limit of how much I get to keep. I’m going to create a card and letter memory box, and the ones I keep have to fit into that one box.

Have a look at the empty box below (it’s not big) and all the letters and cards. Do you think I’ll make it? Well let’s see 🙂

What will I keep?
Some letters from family members and friends, in this day of texts and e-mails, handwritten letters are a rarity.

Letters and cards from family members that are no longer with us, I’ll keep the most special ones.

Birthday and Christmas cards from people still in my life. I’ll only keep the ones that put a smile on my face or warms my heart.

I’ve also stumbled across stuff from people that I no longer have any contact with – old friends, pen pals, others I have briefly meet over the years. All great people and good stories, but people that I have not been in touch with for years (yeah.. many years), and some I’ll admit I struggled remembering who was for a minute (ops). If I keep any, it will only be those that puts a big smile on my face or bring back a particular good memory.

So, how did I do?
I did pretty good if I may say so, you can see the result below. Filled box and pile to toss.

Decluttering my cards and letters sure brought back memories, both good ones and sad ones (like when I came across a card from my dad who passed away this year) talk about taking a walk down memory line.

My biggest problem was to dwindle it down to only the most memorable items so they could fit into the box, having all these special peoples writings.

I’ll probably make another stab at this later this year, There was no way I was going to manage to read through all the long letters today. As much fun as it is to read letters, after about 25-30 of them in one row, I just couldn’t do any more, so I saved a few of them to read and sort through later (I still got everything to fit in the box though 😉 )

I have to say, doing this, sure starts off the new year really good, it’s reminding me of all the great people I have (and have had) in my life that I care for 🙂

Have you ever thought about creating a card/letter memory box? It’s great to have if you should ever need a pick me up, you will have a box full of “loved ones” you can sit down with for an hour or two 🙂

Before (top two) and after (bottom two)