Tag: Cards

21.10 – Cards galore!

day-10We’re at day 10 of my 21 day declutter challenge.

I mentioned the other day, that Melinda, over at Purpleslobinrecovery, is roaming my blog, leaving comments and reminding me of older posts.

So.. since we are on this track of Melinda “kicking my butt”. I guess I should just keep going on random cleanup according to her schedule (just kidding Melinda, I’m loving that your comments are making me take a second look).

We are still being nostalgic and are staying in January 2014, and the post was “My card and letter paper station“.

And again, I’m thinking that…
Hmmm, has it really been as long as January 2014 since I looked at this last time? Well, guess it’s time then…

So off course, through the box I go.. and lo and behold.. I DO find some cards and envelopes that might just as well leave the house. And here we are…

“50” items from my box of unwritten cards are going out-the-door!

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21 cards
28 envelopes
1 small set of cards w/envelopes (12 pieces)

Thanks again Melinda, for great reminders to take a second look 😉

 

I’m being joined in this challenge by:
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, is on her day eleven.
– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, you gotta read her declutterathon and day two. I love the inner/outer dialogue.
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, is feeling slightly overwhelmed, but is still deluttering.
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, she is on day eight, and is decluttering for the rest of us 🙂 329 items!

What I gained this trip!

As you all know, I’ve been on this mission to declutter and get rid of stuff!

Going to Houston I had plans to buy 2 t- shirts and 1 pair of jeans as replacement for worn out stuff. That was, until my luggage went missing!

Yes you heard right! Upon landing in Houston, my luggage was still sitting in Stavanger. It had never made it on the plane… ???

“Well” I thought “that’s OK, it will make it here tomorrow… No sweat”

Turns out tomorrow came and went, and so did the next day, and the next, and during my “hunt” for information, nobody and I mean nobody seemed to have any idea where in the world my luggage was!

Fortunately the friend I was staying with, is of the generous type, but after three days of walking around in oversized men’s clothing, I caved and went shopping.

2 t-shirts, 2 bras, 3 undies, 1 sleep shorts and a couple of jeans later, I get the phone call I had been waiting for “We have your luggage ma’am, it will be delivered today”!

“Well that don’t sound too bad”, you’re thinking, “you were going to buy some of that anyway”. You’re right, I was… but what I promptly forgot in the middle of all this, is that I went to Houston to celebrate my birthday. And just because my intentions were no birthday gifts…. 😉

So here I am, returning from my “wasn’t going to buy anything trip” with an extra set of items in my luggage:

  • 8 T-shirts
  • 1 shirt
  • 2 bras
  • 3 undies
  • 2 sleep shorts
  • 2 pair of jeans
  • 5 books
  • 2 notebooks
  • 1 ring
  • and a bunch of birthday cards

That’s 27 new items in-the-door!

This was not quite according to plan!

I must say though, I kinda really did need a few replacement pieces of clothing… 😉 and I am very appreciative of my wonderful friends gifts, which have given me some new favourite pieces 🙂

Hmm, guess this means, I will have to start a hunt for items to shed, to make up for what just came into my house…

HELP!!!

How do you guys handle unexpected gifts coming into your house?

 

Living a lighter life – a wallet’s short story

I feel lighter now 🙂

My owner is doing a decent job most of the time, only carrying around the most important credit cards, membership card, receipts and things. But I can’t help feeling stuffed some of the time.

I have not been alone. I have a couple of family members still hanging around in this house. They are no longer in daily use and feel somewhat lonely, stuffed away in a dark drawer. Their only job these days have been holding on to a lot of cards that are rarely used, or not used at all. And I know for a fact that my oldest family member is ready to move on to the next realm, he’s done his work and is tired.

Today is a great day 🙂 Our owner decided to bring us all out on the table. She emptied us all out, and while she sorted out all the stuff we were holding, we got to hang out with each other and catch up for a while 🙂

She did really good at getting rid of the unused credit cards, no longer valid membership cards, business cards and so on.

As she was done, she slowly started to put the leftover cards back into our protective fold. This time around though, she left plenty of space for us to breath 😉

And guess what, she let my oldest family member retire. He is now going into the recycle pile so he can move on…

and he’s bringing a bunch of cards with him 🙂

Wallet cleanup

My card and letter paper station

Doing my wrapping station including Christmas cards yesterday, it was natural to continue with my pile of writing paper and cards today.

I pretty much email people, rather than do hand written letters these days (guess in this digital time, hand written letters are a dying art), and I’m only going to keep some cards and small writing sheets, the rest is going out the door.

You could wonder why I keep any of my cards or paper at all. Well, I’ve found it handy to have birthday, valentine, Christmas cards available for a rainy day. It has saved my “butt” on several occasions, especially birthdays 😉

Before
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Out the door pile
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The keep box
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My Christmas wrapping station

It’s Saturday and i can’t believe how this day just ran away from me. Between the normal Saturday stuff, I’ve had people visiting me all day.

Not much time left over for my decluttering project, but even so, I did find a few minutes to declutter my Christmas wrapping stash.

Christmas is over, and I’ve found that there are wrapping items I’m sure I’ll never ever use…(haven’t used the last few years) so out it goes. No reason to keep all wrapping paper, ribbons, cards etc. There is such a thing as to much.

My pile isn’t to big (i clean up every now and then), but in the name of being “ruthless” I decluttered stuff that had passed the test before 😉

This is what I’m left with; a box of ribbons and tags, some silk paper, bobble wrap, two rolls of paper and 6 Christmas cards for next year.

Have you had a critical look at your wrapping station lately?

My decluttered items
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What I’m left with
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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)
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