Old Birthday & Father's (Mother's) Day Cards

[Germonico]

Coincidentally, I had to search for a CD certificate that matures in November and couldn't find it. I started going through shoe boxes of "collectibles" (to me anyway) and came across years of old birthday cards and father's day cards and decided to start the "purge." After all, when I leave this world, they will have no meaning to anyone but me. I was wondering if others on this board save old birthday cards or do you throw them away at the end of each "party?"

[Happyras]

I have a hard time throwing away Christmas cards, we get fewer each year, and those we get are mostly custom photo shots we tend to keep up all year. Bday cards are just hard to toss when you consider the thought behind them, but really they need to go when your in the mood to toss.

[Another Reader]

Scan the ones that are important to you and dump the paper. Your kids might like to see the Father's Day cards they sent you when they were young that you saved.

[target2019]

I have two hershey holiday tins that look like houses, so more taller than wide. I keep stuffing these old cards and mementos into the tins. One will be found by daughter and one by son, someday.

[RobbieB]

I toss 'em in the trash a week after.

[Dawg52]

I toss cards after a short time. But I did find some old letters and cards that my mother had from 30+ years ago. Some letters go back to the 1940's. Most from other relatives, so I kept those. Don't take up that much space and a connection to the past.

[MRG]

DW lost her little sister when DS was 18. She'd saved every card and letter DW had sent her. DW still has them today.

DM saved quite a few cards and letters. The most interesting were ones my late DB sent from the Navy in 62-64. Both my sisters and I got a look inside his life we never knew.

[Bestwifeever]

I save everything from DH and our two children and the kids can sort them out later. I have only one letter from each of my long deceased parents sent a week before my very ill mother died and they are too painful for me to read but the kids might appreciate looking at them one day. If we didn't have kids who might like to see these things, I most definitely would not keep them past a week or so, which is how long I keep cards from people Other than DH and the kids.

[W2R]

I have probably saved a half dozen or so that meant the most to me. All of my mementos of various kinds fit into a shoebox, that I call my nostalgia box. Old report cards, first crayon drawings, and so on, all fit into it.

[rodi]

My grandmother saved all the letters my dad wrote when he went into the airforce.. My sister and I read through those after dad died, then passed them on to his sister. It was touching.
That said - I save almost nothing. I'm one of the least sentimental parents/friends around. I enjoy them when I get them - then toss them within a week. My kids object to the fact I haven't saved all their kindergarten art projects, etc... The really good ones were posted on the fridge or bulletin board for a month or so... before they were tossed.

That's me.

[Teacher Terry]

Toss after a week. I have one really funny letter my Dad wrote me and I copied it because the ink was fading since it was written in 1976. I kept some of my kids stuff for years but they did not want it so it is gone. I have really been purging because when I die I don't want my kids to have to do it. My Mom did the same for us. Of course if my DH outlives me both sets of kids will have a mess to deal with because he won;t get rid of things on his own. I told him I will have to outlive him because it will piss me off if he messes up my beautiful home)

[USA]

In our family, my B-day fell 2 days before my Moms. My husband ‘s brother’s b-day 4 days after his. In early years of card shopping we’d read cards and joke that each other had read theirs then and skipped buying ours. Over the years it morphed into a card being kept for each of us that we reuse. I’ve taken to writing an add’l notation inside. It’s a funny thing we share. After the b-day, it gets put away for the next year. It’s our own little tradition.

[Scuba]

We have saved a lot of cards along with photos. We have plastic boxes - bigger than shoe boxes but smaller than crates - in our closet, organized by year. We should definitely make time to go through and cull both the cards and the photos, but can never seem to make this a priority.

[jollystomper]

We do a purge maybe every 3-4 years or so and throw away most of the cards. We keep ones with photos, or which include some message beyond just a simple "congrats" or "Merry" or "Happy" and a signature. That amount fits within a couple of folders on a shelf, so it does not take too much space and our kids have enjoyed looking through them.