What do you do with all the cards?

[MicroPigInHighHeels]

I am having a big 'tidy-up-the-house' day, and seem to have accumulated a huge pile of cards over the last few years - xmas, birthdays, postcards, wedding invites, birth announcements, new baby, thank you cards, etc, etc...
So now what was supposed to be a half hour tidy-up of the kitchen dresser has turned into 2 hours reading all these cards, messages, etc...
The question is - what does everyone else do with these - shall I just chuck them all and have a nice clean, clear dresser or sift through them and keep 'special' ones with nice messages, photos in for instance. And if keeping them - where to put them so they don't just end up overflowing everywhere again?
(Now of course I am wasting time MNetting and not getting on with things, sigh...)

I used to be the same but now I'm ruthless! I've kept our wedding cards and dd new baby cards in two box files. And now I only keep birthday etc cards fom dd and DH and bin the rest.
I dont keep any thank you cards. Any really posh wedding invites for close friends I slip in photo albums with photos of the relevant wedding.
Hope that helps!!

I'm afraid I have stashes of cards all over hte house. I do try to only keep the special ones but when I hav'nt time to sort them out I generally keep them all together slip them between some books on a shelf, And there problem solved!
Actually I have progressed from slipping them between things to find unexpectedly and suprisingly and have dedicated a tin for cards..thought now it is almost full....

I would just keep the ones that have meaning to you in a shoebox and cut up any others and make them into gift tags.

Im entirely unsentimental and chuck everything. I kept birth cards for DS but nothing else. For really special ones, how about a large clipframe and do a collage?

Chuck them! They take up loads of space & will you really want to look at them again? I kept birth cards and wedding cards & that's it. Be ruthless

I put them in the crafty type area and the dc cut them up.

Recycle them!

COuld you scan them and keep electronic copies only?

This sounds elaborate.. bear with me!
For wedding cards, I made a wedding box- photos, cards, an invitation, garter, special wedding bits etc
Birth ones, similar
Then, we each have a box for our 'treasures' - in it go special cards, special bits and pieces, I have photos of my godson that don;t need to be out on view etc. The boxes are labelled and everyone decides what constitutes a treasure.

If it is not a treasure it is binned without hesitation.

You keep birthday and christmas cards????

Wow.

Why?

Chuck any you can't remember who they are - OR if particularly nice cut off the picture on front and keep in a box for crafty things? I have a few cards from special occaisions - DD has her 1st yr box with all congrats cards and 1st b.day cards in, but I don't plan to keep all of her future ones. Likewise, my mum died a few years back so all of her cards are special to me and I keep them (want DD to know her handwriting, strangely!) so nowt wrong with these keepsakes, just limit them to people who matter.

Put them in the recycling bin, you do not need them in your life, they add nothing.

Have you got small children? Let them cut up the pictures to make collages or you could make them into gift tags?

I keep the ones from DH, DS and my parents. Everything else goes in the bin. Certainly wouldn't keep birth announcement cards/wedding invites from other people.

I keep Christmas cards to make tags from the following year. Everything else goes in the recycling.

Saw something the other day where you hole punch through them and tie them together with ribbon to make a little book of all your favourite ones.

I chuck them all, sometimes minutes after opening them.

I bin them all, I kept dd's cards though from birth and birthdays and she stores them (hoarder). She keeps stuff like train tickets from memorable days though. She likes stuff like that, always has.

Everything else I just chuck. I can't stand stuff everywhere.

Scan VERY special ones and store digitally. Bin the rest. Birthday cards stay up a MAX of 1 week and Christmas cards get binned straight away (I do read them first - send one back if needed (trying to stop doing xmas cards though)) - I realised two years ago that I found them a massive PITA. DS keeps his in his bedroom.

I kept birth cards for DD and have recycled the rest. I don't see the point in keeping them all just to clutter up the house.

I have kept all the birth & christening cards that DS & DD received plus the cards we were given when we got married.

At birthdays/Xmas DH & I keep the ones we get from each other and the kids (so 3). At birthdays/Xmas I keep the ones DS and DD get from us, each other, grandparents, and aunts/uncles (8).

They are bound together with a ribbon and kept in our individual "treasure boxes". In these we can also keep any tickets etc from places we visit, newspapers etc that we appear in.

Why disrespectful? Nobody fondly imagines you still have them. If you don't want them just get rid and never think about it again.