A house of cards

When I cleaned out the coat closet, one of the organizers held gobs of new (okay, we'll go with "unused," since some of them are almost vintage) cards. Birthday, mother's and father's day, anniversary, random holiday cards, get-well, congratulations, sympathy cards, thank-you cards, invitations, personalized cards, and blank cards.  All occasion, every occasion, if there's a card for it, I've probably got one.  Somewhere. And this doesn't include the boxes of Christmas cards I gathered up and placed in one of those six tubs that will transfer to the new coat closet.

After the closet cleaning was done, I took that teetering stack of cards and plopped it on my desk. I then dug around in two other hidey-holes I knew of, and came up with even more unused cards. 

I confess: I am a card fiend. Hallmark has my number, and all card stores issue a siren's call I can't seem to resist.  I buy the cutest cards and then I often lay them on my desk where they stay until it's way too late to send them.  I wonder if this is a recognized addiction?  Hopefully this process was a DIY intervention...

The next step was to sort through them and toss any that were wayyy outdated. The remaining cards are now organized so I can rifle through them at a moment's notice and find an appropriate card for the occasion. They are going in a box along with the other select few items destined for my new desk and drawer space.

My promise to myself (which I am making publicly today) is that I will use up these cards first before buying any others. And I will look for opportunities to send a card. (If I spent $2 or $3 on the card, surely I can cough up four bits for a stamp to send it, right?)

Who knows? I might actually meet the goal of sending my Secret Sister at least one card each month this year.

Too bad I didn't find a stack of moving announcements.  Guess I'll just have to break over and order some.  (And uhhhh, SEND them.)

Happy card-ing