Peace of Mind Organizing

Keeping holiday cards easy

8 November 2018

I don’t celebrate Christmas, so December is a very easy month for me. I give few gifts so I don’t have to worry about shopping. And I don’t decorate at all.

But one I thing I enjoy doing is sending holiday cards. I send two sets: One for Peace of Mind Organizing clients and colleagues and one for personal friends. (The personal set always sports a picture of our very photogenic standard poodle, Bix, on the front.) Over the years I’ve been simplifying and making the process of sending out cards easier and easier.

How do I keep it simple? My secret weapon is Minted.com. I’ve been ordering from them for years and don’t even consider taking my business elsewhere.

Here’s why I love Minted:

• They offer beautiful cards (both photo and non-photo) designed by independent artists who win design competitions for the privilege of being included.
• They offer addressing of the envelopes at no additional cost, in a design that complements the card. This is a huge time saver and looks great.
• The quality of the card stock is excellent and they offer a number of options (like printed return addresses, “skinny wrap” returns address labels, printed card backs and envelope liners) to snazz it up. I opt for the skinny wrap but otherwise haven’t adding any features this year.
• They offer flat, as well as folded, cards.

This year, I picked out my design (I tried not to agonize over it), then edited last year’s address list. I removed a few people and added more. I ordered stamps from the postal service’s website.

When the cards arrive, they’ll already be addressed. All I’ll have to do is write a note on the back of each one, put it in its envelope, apply the return address label and stamp and put it in the mail. I’ve ordered 165 business holiday cards, so if I do 20 a day I’ll have it done in just over a week.

In 2018 I took up hand lettering as a hobby, so I’ll get some great practice when I write on the back of each of the cards.

I still need to do the same thing for my personal cards—picking out the picture of Bix is the hardest part. But I’ll turn my attention to that this weekend and I’ll do it all again for my friends. But that’s a smaller list.

If you don’t enjoy sending holiday cards, I encourage you to take that particular task off your list. As a card enthusiast, I always enjoy receiving cards but I don’t notice if someone doesn’t send me one. I’d be willing to bet that no one will hold it against you if you choose not to send cards!

But if you do enjoy sending holiday cards, you might look into ways that you can make it easier, like ordering online and having your addresses printed on the cards. Minted makes that easy. (By the way, that’s an affiliate link; if you use it I get a small commission that doesn’t affect your price.)

Let your holidays be as easy as possible!

Tagged with: cards, ease, holidays

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