What’s in YOUR Bedside Table? Reflections on Correspondence

That’s exactly where he found the card.

Jim asked me to help him finish sorting and organizing his closet. He pivoted in the middle of the session to focus attention on the two large drawers in his bedside table.

Just as he predicted, we found all kinds of stuff — outdated tech, cough drops and chapsticks, foreign and domestic coins, keepsakes, trash, shoelaces, you name it. 

The largest grouping of items was a stack of cards. We’d already found a large stack of correspondence in his office upstairs, but clearly the bedside table was another favorite stashing spot.

The card in this picture was from his wife. Looks like she knows him pretty well. 😂

In that stack were cards that had canned, impersonal printed greetings; Jim wondered why he even kept those. 

So many people keep correspondence, often “just because” and out of habit. If you expect to return to the pile to read the messages from a special person, or for a special occasion, that’s one thing. Find a place to keep that special correspondence, so you can find it easily when you want to read it.

If you keep the cards (and perhaps envelopes too) out of habit, it might be time to reconsider. We’ve seen piles and piles of correspondence with clients, often from many years past, in no order, and including totally impersonal notes. Is it worth it to you to add to your clutter with that?

Get in the habit of making a decision soon after you receive a card or letter. Is the message special? Keep it in your chosen location. If not, be grateful for receiving the card and then recycle it.

What’s in your bedside table? in your desk? This month, take some time to clear out your old correspondence.