How Long Should You Display Birthday Cards in Your Home? (Four Steps!)

If you are a sentimental person, you probably like displaying birthday cards, greeting cards, and other cards to relive the memory.

Many people often organize them neatly to create an aesthetically appealing display.

Doing that keeps them in one place and can even contribute to your home’s décor.

So, How Long Should You Keep A Birthday Cards On Display In Your Home?

The answer generally depends on how sentimental the cards are to you. If they mean a lot, you may want to keep them forever. But if you are displaying them only because you like their design, you may get bored with them at some point and take them down.

Generally, once you receive cards, you don’t need to keep them any longer. But since some are sentimental, you may consider displaying them.

See Also: How Often Should You Display Sympathy Cards?

Four Steps to Help You Decide Whether to Display Birthday Cards or Not

After receiving your cards, the next step you take depends on the type of card in question.

Generally, cards fall into three categories;

  1. those you keep for sentimental reasons
  2. those you keep to reuse,
  3. and those you get rid of completely.

You will likely find a few cards of each category when sorting them. Let’s go through the steps of deciding whether to display or throw away your old cards.

1. Throw Away Obvious Cards

Seeing loads of cards piled in your house can be daunting.

But, you will have to work out to decide the ones worth displaying and the ones you want to throw.

If you don’t see a practical reason for keeping a card, consider getting rid of it.

For example, it can be a card from someone you’re not that close to or that is damaged or doesn’t have a design you love.

Once you get rid of them, you will remain with lesser cards to motivate you to go on.

But we should mention that while throwing cards, make sure to read the messages inside first. Get the sender’s name, address, etc.

2. Find out Your Reason for Keeping the Cards

Sometimes we do things without thinking deeply about the reason behind them or the results we will get.

So, if you want to continue displaying cards, find why you are doing that.

Some of the cards could be from a long time from the people that unfortunately passed away, but you still treasure them.

We often want to keep cards because we believe that they all are special.

However, this isn’t always the case.

You need to determine whether you’re keeping the card for a reason or because you feel like it.

For example, you might be keeping cards your child receives for sentimental values and hand them when they are grown.

But ask yourself, will they want the card then?

Another example is you’re displaying your cards for sentimental reasons.

But you’ve barely looked at them for over five years.

So is it worth continuing to continue filling your space with them?

Work out the reason for displaying the card. If it doesn’t carry much meaning, it may be time to get rid of the card.

3. How Many Cards Do You Have?

Every year, we receive birthday cards from our family and friends.

While displaying them can make the house beautiful and serve as a reminder, too many of them in your home isn’t appealing.

It’s always best to go through the ones you have and decide whether they are worth keeping any longer.

If they are not, it’s best to get rid of them and display the new ones that you’ll get.

However, this is also challenging since deciding which card remains and which one goes down is also hard.

But bear in mind that you were given and received the card with a grateful heart.

So, that’s a done deal to the giver. Therefore, what you decide to do with it after receiving it is totally up to you.

It’s always best to keep cards sent by close family members, especially if they have a special message or picture on the front. The appropriate number depends on what you feel is right for you.

There isn’t a standard timeframe set on how long individuals need to display birthday cards.

The length varies among different individuals.

Some people display them for a day, a week, or a couple of weeks.

Also, remember that some cultures believe that keeping them for a long time is considered unlucky.

So, if you are a superstitious person, you may want to consider that.

The above steps can help you decide how long to display your birthday cards.

What’s important to remember is that there is no formula for keeping your birthday cards.

If they still make you happy when you look at them, continue displaying them even if it’s been several months.

But, if you don’t ever look at them, or you find them bothersome, it may be time to remove them from the display.

What to Do with Cards That You Are Not Displaying?

If you’ve decided you no longer need to display the cards, what do you do next?

Well, you can throw them or burn them.

However, this doesn’t feel like the right step for many people.

In that case, there are alternative considerations.

For instance, you can collect all the cards you want out of the display and store them safely.

You can store them in an album, a box, or a file.

Have a separate file for different family members to keep things more organized.

Alternatively, you can punch a hole in each card’s corner and hold them together using a ring clip.

But if you don’t have any storage space or you no longer want the cards, you can scan or take photos of the sections of the card you want to keep and store the pictures on your computer.

This way, you can preserve them for a long time since they can’t fade or get damaged. Plus, you can recycle the physical card as you have kept a digital copy.

Again, you can consider reusing the cards if you don’t use them.

You can make a gift tag with the pictures of the card for someone’s present in the future.

Cut the design, punch a hole and add some string or ribbon.

How Can You Organize Your Birthday Cards?

You can find inspiration for organizing your birthday cards online through a Google search or Pinterest.

However, choosing the right card organizer can be challenging.

If you are storing cards of sentimental value and want to look at them from time to time, you need to put them where you can easily access them.

Scrapbooks are an ideal way of keeping your birthday cards readily available and accessible.

Pick your cards and add them to a scrapbook if you already have one.

Or, start a new scrapbook specifically for storing the birthday cards you receive.

You can organize the cards how you like, but experts recommend organizing by date or relationship with the senders.

Once you’re finished, place the scrapbook on a bookshelf for anyone to see or tuck it away.

References

How Long Do You Leave Birthday Cards up for?

Greeting Cards- Should They Stay or Go?

What to Do with Old Cards and Letters