Greeting Cards and Minimalism

     

            I love getting mail. Who doesn’t want to be greeted by a card in your mailbox?

I especially love cards that elicit a laugh or smile or cause a tear to form in the corner of my eye. And I love finding Christmas cards in my mailbox. And mailing Christmas cards!

           There is something about the excitement of knowing that someone else picked out a card for you, and the mystery of waiting to open the envelope and see what card lies inside. And the fact that someone decided what greeting or note to write inside and then paid the high price of a stamp to have it delivered to your door.

               I think it is a great way to let those you love, who might live far away, know that you are thinking of them. When I mail a card, I love imagining the point when they open the card and read my handwritten message inside. That the person would smile, or laugh, enjoying not only the card I picked out for them, but the written message inside.

               But, after my husband passed and I had boxes and boxes of cards to sift through, I wondered whether it was worth it to keep greeting cards. And how long should I keep them?

               Up to that point in my life, I had Christmas cards going back probably 10 years. Also, if you sent me a birthday card in the last decade or so, I probably had that stored in a box as well. I love funny cards, hand-made cards, and cards that touch my heart.

               And I kept birthday cards for my husband and my kids. I kept those cards which often documented their ages and their friends through the years. I kept boxes and boxes of greeting cards.

               But when you look at those boxes and boxes of cards through the lens of minimalism, what do you see?

               When I looked through the boxes of cards, it brought back some great memories. I loved opening them and reading the comments in them, remembering people from my past that I might not have heard from in years, or decades. The handwritten notes inside—sometimes printed quickly with a short “happy birthday”, but some with cursive writing where the author wrote how much I meant to them, or how much they appreciated an action, a kindness, or sometimes just sharing a hard time they were experiencing.

               But I asked myself, would my kids really want to have these? Do I really want to encourage them to carry around these cards throughout their life?

               I had to ask myself what carrying these old greeting cards in boxes had accomplished for me at this point. And how often do I look at them and reread them? Honestly, most of them have not seen the light of day since I boxed them up. Most of them sat in aged boxes collecting dust. And spiderwebs. Additional weight that I had to carry around every time I moved.

               So, why would I keep them?

               If I used my coffee cup philosophy of minimalism, then I needed to ask if they served a purpose.

               The answer was no, not anymore. It did at the time. The card was once very meaningful. But now, unless you consider the trip down memory lane, I often don’t really remember it exactly. But a real purpose, I would have to say “no”.

               Could they be useful? Well, if I made them into something, maybe they could be useful. I have seen where people put greeting cards into a book or photo album. Or where people cut the cards and reuse the front for postcards. I considered that as a possibility.

               The next question to ask myself was whether I remember where they came from, which is easy because they are signed, and often I kept the envelope which included a name and address. But was that truly a reason to keep them?

               The last question to ask myself, do I have more than one? In this regard, the answer was a RESOUNDING yes! I had tons of them! However, the one thing I did not have tons of, was cards from my mother, or my grandparents, or my sister I lost decades ago.

               With those answers in mind, I mulled over several days what to do with these cards. I didn’t really want to make something from most of them. My goal was to reduce my clutter to useful items, and I could not find a purpose for these cards that fit. They were good memories, but the physical cards were not really something I wanted to keep.

               Except for the cards from those who had already passed. I felt like those were something that, at this time in my life, I wanted to keep. And especially some cards from my late husband. What I would eventually do with those cards I was not sure, but at this point I would keep just those select cards and nothing more. Reducing enormously my number of greeting cards in boxes.

               I decided to spend time in the moments of these cards though, before throwing them away. I opened each and every one of those cards and smiled as I remembered the time (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) and the person who sent them.

               Reminiscing about these things was very cathartic. Sometimes I cried, sometimes I laughed, but I enjoyed the time I spent reading through them.

               Yes, it took a lot of time. But in my mind, it was time well spent.

               I kept a few of them.

               However, I have kept the last few years of Christmas cards. I love Christmas and I love getting Christmas cards! I pick a spot in my home, and I start taping them up on the wall as soon as I get them. I leave them up well into the new year. I love seeing the decorated spot knowing all those people took time to send me a card. It is a wall of love!

               When I take them down, I spend time rereading them and enjoying the memory of that person.

               I have kept the Christmas cards from the last few years. At this point I am considering putting them in a scrap book or photo album. I have not yet decided.

               What do you do with greeting cards? Do you keep them, and if you do, where do you keep them? Do you have projects you make from them?

               The one twist to this is that I do LOVE mailing greeting cards! I love envisioning the smile on people’s face when they receive the cards I mailed!

               And the irony is not lost on me, that I don’t keep greeting cards that people send me, but I send greeting cards to other people.

               Yes, I do. And even though cards are expensive nowadays and postage is rising, I send greeting cards, knowing full well that people will probably not save them.

               BUT, if it brings a smile to their face when they receive the card, then it is worth the time and money I spent on them. And what if, five or ten years down the road, they are having a bad day, for whatever reason, and they open my card again and it makes them laugh…

               Well, then it is DEFINITELY worth it!