I only use red pen for things that need to be noted each year – birthdays, anniversaries etc so it’s easy to pick them out of the day-to-day black and blue pen. If I find out someone’s birthday during the course of the year and don’t have a red pen handy I write it in and put a large star at each end of it so I pick it up in the yearly translation to a new refill.

As for cards, I resent spending $5 on a piece of paper so I bought a bunch of blanks and now make a card for each person – quick, easy, cheap and the recipient is usually oddly impressed…

Check out
http://www.GreetingsToRemember.com

I also have a dislike for people requesting my information through a website. And what’s the deal with people uploading their contact database to an online merchant? Belying the original intention, that seems very inconsiderate.

AmericanGreetings.com offers a great reminders system, which is integrated with its ecards. You can import your contacts from Outlook and most popular mail programs. I’ve done a lot of work on this and our address book behind the scenes in the past few months, and I use it myself.

http://www.seteditions.com/cardstock.html

At the risk of sounding like an asshole, any requests I receive for going to website.com and filling in my information are summarily deleted. I’ll respond to a friend’s email asking me for my birthday, address, what-have-you, but an email that says, “Hi, can you do me a favor and type in your information at this site, I’d really appreciate it,” really pisses me off. It feels like somebody else wants me to do their organizing for them.

I love that it’s resident on my computer and doesn’t rely on an online source. Somehow this feels cleaner and safer (and doesn’t require access to email or the internet). To have all that data solely on someone else’s server would give me the willies.

And for the record, I think the “social clutter” commenter is on to something. Erin has obviously drawn her line where she is comfortable. However, “uncluttering” is partially about questioning the status quo. It would be a shame to be sending out lots of cards mostly in the name of social decorum. Holiday cards, anyone?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reviving the Art of Putting Pen to Paper
By ABIGAIL PESTA
SPECIAL TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 23, 2007; Page D2

In an age when you can email President Bush and instant-message your boss, here’s one way to make an impression when writing to someone: Pick up a pen and apply it to actual stationery.

For the full article:
http://online.wsj.com/public/a.....05765.html

I was simply agreeing with the earlier poster (Sarah) that perhaps this topic could spark contemplation of one’s social network and whether some of the card giving simply adds to social clutter and maintains relationships with people that one don’t really have a relationship with beyond card exchanges.

Calm down. Noone is attacking you. But there is a bigger picture here beyond the mere task of organizing cards.

The occasional stray card gets kept. For example, every year I pull out my card with a picture of a tiny trailer outlined with Christmas lights. I love that thing.