Monday, May 9, 2011

Unfinished Business...Cards

I've been trying to take a page out of Serena's book and de-clutter/minimalize my life. I have WAY too much stuff, and most of it is hiding under random papers that have collected over the years (making it hard to find and use said stuff). So, I've started attacking the pile(s).

Turns out I have a number of business cards from my last employer. Obviously I'm not going to be using those again for their intended purpose, but I wanted to do something with them that didn't involve throwing them away. I have a few too many to just use them as bookmarks as well. I was a little underwhelmed by most of the ideas I found on the internet, so I came up with some ideas on what I could do with them:

  • write a description of what needs mending on an article of clothing, punch a hole in the card, slip over top of hanger.
  • fold in half and use to clean lint out of the bathroom fan. (you know you need to)
  • organize decorative bobby pins by pinning like ones together on a card at home.
  • organize purse by sticking emergency bobby pins and hair elastics to a card.
  • organize earrings during travel by punching them through the card together.
  • create an impromptu sewing kit with some thread, a needle, and a couple pins.
  • throw some in old film canisters with waterproof matches as emergency camping tinder.
  • make keyholes in the cards and use them as wine glass identifiers at a party
  • write notes to a loved one, hide in their jacket pocket or lunch box
  • write a reminder why you shouldn't spend money, place card in front of your credit/debit card.
  • etc...
While I was mostly underwhelmed by my googling, I did find a couple interesting ideas. These Swedish business cards are particularly clever:

Second hand goods anyone?

If I was to get into the consignment business, I'd totally do a riff on that design. On the other hand, I almost wish I had grabbed the rest of the box when I was cleaning out my desk; I could have made one of these:

BonnerCube

But alas, I did no such thing.

As it stands, I'll probably take the easy way out and use one of my clip magnets to hold most of them on the fridge as an impromptu grocery list note pad. I'll clip loose bobby pins to one in my makeup bag, and the rest will become shims under wobbly Starbucks tables ;)

What would you do with your old business cards?

7 comments:

Daisy said...

THis whole post made me laugh!

I had the most adorable business cards made up until I went and moved and thus my address and phone number changed. I should have though of that.. I had given like 4 out. So I had to throw them out. I still pine for them.

Dinheiro Como Ganhar said...

Excellent article, I loved the information.
Congratulations!

Cassie said...

@Daisy - What did they look like?

@Dinheiro Como Ganhar - I'm glad you liked it :)

The Asian Pear said...

haha. cute.

When my workplace changed names, we all had to get rid of our old cards. I took mine and used it as scrap paper.

Plastic business cards said...

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Plastic Business cards said...

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Unknown said...

Awesome cards Thanks for sharing...

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