Confession: I'm a Card Hoarder

I don't know about you, but I struggle with sentimentality and attaching value to objects big and small. If someone gives me something I feel a strong need to keep it, even if I ultimately don't really even want it. 

The little folded pieces of card stock are the worst for me. I for some reason feel that if someone spent the money on a card for me that I should keep it because it has some sort of sentimental value or at the least I don't want to be wasteful.

Honestly, I don't really understand cards. They are generally a lot of money and people don't even tend to write anything meaningful in them, they just sign their names and rely on the sappy Hallmark/card maker language. 

Don't get me wrong I love getting one that has a message in it and is out of the blue. I also really like when they come in the mail, because getting mail is exciting. 


But why do we feel the need to keep cards? Especially the ones with no special or personalized message? I think it's two-fold:

1. More than likely the person who gave it to us means something to us, so we     automatically give value to the piece of paper; and
2. We don't want to feel wasteful. When I know someone spent $4 on a card I feel pretty bad opening it, reading it, and then throwing it away. It's like throwing away money or a gift and I feel a little guilty. I at least feel like I should reuse the cards for something. (Which I did for awhile and made little jewelry boxes, that's probably why I have so many).

Our recycling tonight is going to look like the card aisle at the grocery store because I finally decided to let go. I had piles of cards stored up in a box in my craft room. Mind you I never took them out and never looked through them, but they were there and it made me feel better because I didn't feel like I was being wasteful. Instead I was being respectful and keeping the lovely cards people had sent me. 


But guess what?

Keeping a pile of cards in a box is still wasteful. It's wasting space both physically and in your head. Also, they can be recycled which actually makes them useful. 


My suggestions for getting rid of cards and deciding if you should keep a few:

*Note: you could just chuck them all and let it go. I chose to keep a few because I do like to have reminders of when people loved on me. 

• Is there a special handwritten note in the card? If my card had a special note in it and was more than a signature then I likely kept it. This actually did not amount to many cards. I got rid of most of the ones that were just signatures. (Except as noted below).

• Is the card from someone you love that is not longer with you. I made piles of my cards that were from grandparents, relatives, or friends that are deceased, even if the card had just a signature. I then decided to keep one card from that person as a reminder of them. Obviously I can remember them without a card but there is just something about seeing their handwriting. 

• I kept cards from people who are really close to me that had meaning. I had notes from when I was away at college that my mom and grandparents sent to me just to lift me up. I kept those because they are good reminders of my support system and that others have my back. I also kept a couple cards from my dad because he doesn't tend to send them and a couple are nice to have. 

• Cards from my spouse. I kept all cards from my husband from when we were dating and once we were married. All of them had a little note to me in them and reminded me of our lives at the time.

If the cards didn't fit in the above categories they went in the recycling. Believe me this greatly reduced what I kept. Our recycling bin is half full with cards.


This, for now, is my form of minimalism. Not getting rid of everything but reducing. I am a sentimental person and I think we could all use reminders of when people sent us notes letting us know they are thinking about us. Re-reading old notes can really brighten a bad day. The cards I decided to keep do have real value to me. It's up to you to decide which ones really have value to you. 

If you decide to not keep any, it's not a bad thing. Minimalism is about finding your own path and what works for you. It's about changing your mindset to be less controlled by objects. It doesn't mean you get rid of everything, but it does mean you honestly assess what you have and what you really need.

The Junk Drawer

I'm pretty sure we all have a junk drawer. You know, the one in your kitchen, or maybe your office, that holds all of the miscellaneous items you just don't know what else to do with. It probably contains items you use decently often like scissors, but if it's like mine it probably also has batteries, rubber bands, birthday candles, matches, small manuals, tape, screws, leftover pieces from small diy projects, corks, bag clips, paint chips, etc. 

This wasn't the first project I tackled but I did decide to clean it up today. Not only did we have one junk drawer in the kitchen, we had two! I pulled everything out and separated it into piles. I found that most of the stuff in it actually fit in another place in the house. 

Here were my piles:

• tools and related items (electric checker, electric tape, plumbers tape, screwdriver, painters tape, outlet covers).
• office supplies (tape, scissors, notepads, sticky notes, pens, pencils, sharpies, rubber bands, clips, paperclips, packing tape)
• crafty and diy items (drawer hardware)
• batteries and flashlights
• kitchen appliance manuals
• miscellaneous: playing cards, matches, an old phone
• trash (old receipts, small odds and ends, paint chips)

Most of these items actually belong in other places of my house, so evidently we've just been lazy and thrown the little odds and ends in a drawer. With a little more thought, I can actually use these drawers for something more productive or leave them empty. 

All of the tool items go downstairs in a designated space set aside for tools, etc. The office supplies go in the office (that we just cleaned through), the crafty items go in my craft room, the batteries and flashlights go in the basement where there are other batteries, the playing cards go with the games, and the trash goes in the trash. The phone does need to be recycled - unless anyone wants an old LG phone with a pull-out keyboard.

The only things I decided to leave in the drawer were a small flashlight, the kitchen manuals, matches, the clips for food, and scissors for ease of access. 

I did find that most of the stuff in the drawers are items we use or will use so they didn't get thrown away or in the get rid of pile like I'm trying to do with a lot of other items. 

This project took all of 15 minutes and was very productive so there isn't an excuse not to start here. If you have stuff you really don't use throw it away or donate it.

First Steps-Declutter a.k.a. Get Rid of That Junk!

I have a hard time getting rid of things because I always think what if I could have a use for that later or I just don't want to be wasteful. And no, mom, I am not a hoarder. : ) 

My house is actually pretty neat its just when you get right down to it and open the doors and closets we have more than we need for two people. I have a lot of unused stuff that takes up space and just collects dust. I figure there are two steps to weeding some of this out:

1) Getting the motivation to tackle it
2) Letting go - either giving it away, selling it, or realizing it's not worth the energy
3) Also knowing that just because you have the space doesn't mean you have to keep it filled

My first step in simplifying is to get rid of the excess "stuff."

While watching TV in the evenings this week I have taken the time to pull out drawers and clean through them. Two-fold help in the simplification process: wasting less time and cleaning out.

It's somewhat overwhelming but it feels so good when I get a drawer cleaned out and can throw some stuff away! It's going to be a slow process, but at least it's progressing.

How do you mentally prepare yourself for cleaning through stuff? Any tricks you use or thought processes to help you let go?