Tossing old greeting cards can be guilt-inducing, even for ruthless de-clutterers—which means they have a way of piling up. If you’ve got a stash of old cards that you can’t bear to recycle, there’s an easy way to get some use out of them: repurpose them as bookmarks.
I started doing this because my boyfriend always gives me the cutest cards, and I wanted to be able to actually enjoy them. Slipping a card into the book I’m currently reading not only holds my place, it also gives me a little something extra to look forward to every time I open it up. It’s clutter control and reading motivation in one.
When you finish your book, you have a few options for what to do with that card. You could recycle it, but I usually transfer mine to a new book right away. For extra sentimentality points, tuck the card in a copy of a book that has special meaning to the sender—so the next time you reread it, they’re right there with you.