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It’s the time of year to find all kind of other things to do rather than face up to planning for Christmas. I should be making a list of people to send Christmas cards to. And then deciding what type of card to send. Will it be an e-card and a donation to charity? Should I spend a couple of evenings creating my own cards? Or just rummage for the leftover cards from last year?

There’s one thing that stops me from even making a card list. And my passion for a good list is well documented! Once I’ve sorted the cards I’ll have no excuse. There will be no reason not to get on with the rest of Christmas planning from gifts to food to what to wear.

What’s a procrastinator to do? Well sorting out my card box seems like a good plan. I can justify it on the grounds that there might be some Christmas cards in there. Plus I need to see how many thank you cards I have ready for January.

Play along at home and put off your Christmas preparations for an hour or 2.

Step 1

Make a pot of tea and select suitable background music. I’m avoiding anything with a Christmas theme. However, you may need to convince another resident of your abode that you are busy at work on Christmas preparations. In this case, feel free to pull out something with a festive theme.

Step 2

Empty all of the cards out of the ‘organiser’ they are stored/crammed/wedged in. Shoo away cat who wakes up from a long nap to see what’s going on.

Step 3

Obviously you need to pause to top up your tea mug. Also to remove the territorial cat from the top of the pile of cards.

Step 4

Sort your cards into 3 piles:

  • To frame – all those cards that are too lovely to send and that would look awesome framed. Consider if any of these would make good Christmas gifts once framed.
Greetings cards with spider and octopus - to cute to send these are perfect for framing and hanging as a wall decoration
So cute – I really bought these for me so I may as well frame them!
  • To discard – cards that you are never going to send. If they are adorable/witty/aesthetically pleasing consider adding to the pile for framing. Make gift tags out of damaged cards.
  • To keep – everything else that you might consider sending at some point.
Pink greeting cards that are not right for me but might be for some one else - recycle and upcycle
I can’t ever imaging sending these so I’ll be passing them on to someone who might use them. Princess might get framed as a gift!

Step 5

Put cards that you plan to reframe or recycle/upcycle to one side with a view to future procrastination opportunities.

Step 6

At this point, you’re ready to you put cards into logical categories and this, just like a capsule wardrobe, is an opportunity to see where you have over-purchased in one area or where you have an excuse to do more card shopping. Make a note to buy ‘the year in cards’ or ‘thanks a bundle’ selections next time Ink Drops have them on sale.

Step 7

Next, give your card storage a bit of a cleanup. Then look at how you can label your cards. I use dividers in my card organiser but didn’t agree with the printed categories. A bit of washi tape sorted that out.

Labelling the dividers on your greeting card organiser using washi tape means that you can have the headings you want

Step 8

Finally, Put newly categorised cards away. Have another cup of tea and consider something a bit stronger. Realise that you now have to get on with Christmas planning. Resolve to be full of seasonal enthusiasm for the next 5 weeks.

Are you still looking for excuses? Why not do some relevant research? There’s last year’s post on How I get organised for Christmas shopping . Or Carla’s post on how kittens interfered with her planned Christmas card making. What’s your excuse for putting off festive planning?