How many times a year do you have great intentions of snail mailing a birthday card, only to open your calendar or Facebook and see that today IS the birthday? Guilty. Until I came up with a simple system to help me get organized and streamline the birthday card process. Are you ready to get organized with me?
First, download and print this free Birthday Calendar:
Yes, most of us have these dates stored on our digital calendars, but it is nice to have something right in front of you to visualize what you will be working on. Go ahead and fill in your calendar with your family and friends' birthdays. You can include the day with their name as well as their age so you can keep track of any big celebrations. Keep their age in pencil so you can erase it each year! Like this:
June
8 - Mom (62)
19 - Kris (26)
23 - Marlissa (39)
Next, calendar time to purchase or make your cards (with The Crafty Collaboration, you can do both!). Depending on how you roll, you will set aside time once a week or once a month, to make or purchase the birthday cards. Some people like to make cards one month at a time, others three months at a time and some make them six months or the entire year in advance! This is a fun craft project to work on over the course of several weeks to months or over the course of the year. It is not recommended you write your card messages until you actually send the card.
After the cards are made, it's time to address your envelopes. To save time, you can create a Word file for all the birthday cards you send each year, adding (or removing) any names and print them off all at the same time. To add a little fun to your envelopes, check out our Birthday Envelope Art template! At this point, use a pencil in the upper right corner (where the stamp goes) to put the date you need to get the card into the mail (local cards generally go out 2 days before the birthday, while out of state cards usually go out 5 days before the birthday). This step may seem a but "much" but it takes the thinking out of the process for you in the future which will save you more time and stress.
Lastly, use a flex file folder to store your cards by month (this one has a zipper closure, front pocket and comes in many bright colors). Each month, pull out the cards that need to be sent, write your message in the card and move them to the front pocket of the folder, to your outgoing bills folder, or your weekly folder bin (post to follow on this subject!) to send out each week.
Are you going to try it? Drop a line below to let us know what you think or if you have other organizational tips for sending birthday cards!
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