First it was everyone I knew getting married and sending out their gorgeous and meticulously chosen wedding invitations. I’d receive the invitation in the mail, write the date on my calendar, and then, well, I’d just throw the invitation away. I mean, I feel bad saying that I threw away these invitations because I know that my bride friend had probably fretted over the just the right shade of periwinkle for the ink, debated over “ivory” versus “pearl,” and spent hours pouring over fonts that they probably thought would either make or break the tone for their wedding.
I was not that type of bride, but I know that many of my friends devoted an entire year of their life to planning this blessed, (hopefully) once in a lifetime event. In that case, FONTS MATTER! and I’m sure they never pictured their perfect invitations amongst raw chicken juice and the morning’s coffee grounds.
Anyway, now I’m in the stage of life where, rather often, I get an adorable baby announcement in the mail. Baby announcements seem somehow more sacred than a wedding invitation with a cute wittle baby facey wacey right there! I can’t just chuck them in the trash! I know that two very tired parents either spent a great deal of money or time (or both) trying to get the perfect shot to put on the announcement. Many frequently interrupted hours were probably spent choosing the PERFECT announcement for this hard earned photograph.
In my case, there was lots of sweating and tears trying to get a decent picture of Carson for his baby announcement. With his colic, I wasn’t about to take his wailing self to a professional photographer, praying the whole time that he’d just be quiet for a few pictures, only to end up setting a pile of money on fire instead. Tate and I filled the role of photographer and probably took 400 pictures trying to get a shot that didn’t make him look like the newborn blob he was. This announcement seemed VERY IMPORTANT in my post pregnancy, always crying newborn, breastfeeding every hour and a half haze. This picture was Carson’s only introduction to my friends who all lived far away and I didn’t want them to think I had an ugly baby!
But back to what do you DO with all these baby announcements? I’m not good at organizing the photographs of MY OWN CHILDREN, let alone YOUR children. My current “method” is to either 1) put the announcement on the fridge for a while (a few days to a few years) OR 2) put the announcement in a “to be filed” pile. Those piled announcements never actually get “filed” because I don’t actually have a file for “FRIENDS’ KIDS PICTURES.”
What do YOU do with the baby announcements you receive?
(Here’s the picture we chose for Carson’s announcement out of the 400 we took. I think you can see why I was sweating and crying when THIS was the best out of 400.)
PICTURE REMOVED
At least you have a “pile” mine were always just stashed in with the rest of the pile of old pics. Sometimes I’d go through my wedding pics and find a friends baby announcement pic. Organization I has none.
At least you took 400 pics of your baby. I think it’s very cute.
For my last kid I just used one of the horrible pics taken from the hospital. I regret it now. I’m sure people are still talking behind my back on how ugly my baby was.
Jean M.´s lastest post..The Big Reveal…Not So Fast
Um, I have thrown all of them (but one – my pregnancy pal) away. B/c, like you, I just now finished my baby’s first year photo frame and she’s almost 2.5. I can’t manage my own stuff, let alone adding someone else’s.
Also, I have the same conundrum about holiday picture cards. I know what a pain it is to schedule the family portrait, wear coordinating outfits and find the one pic where everyone’s eyes are open and everyone is sort of smiling. While I appreciate the effort, what am I supposed to do with them when the season is over? I throw them away, but I feel very guilty about it.
Shelly´s lastest post..Frog v Toad
I totally throw away wedding invites, with a teensy bit of regret. I still have all the family Christmas photo cards on the fridge and its um…almost March!
As for baby announcements? They will probably live on the fridge or bulletin board as well, but very few of my friends have kids yet so who knows?
And I so hear you on the 400 photos! I agonized forever over my daughter’s announcement photo, and took pictures for like a week. I don’t think they were sent out until she was a month old!
I’ve kept most of the ones for my son’s friends that were born around the same time he was, and just stuck them in my photo album/scrapbook for that year. Random peoples’ I throw away.
Carrie´s lastest post..Typing with semi-frostbitten fingers
I stash these little mementos in my journal. I guess this would only work for people that keep one….but I love to go back and re-read what I have written and find these.
Birthday invites of my kids’ friends are put in their journals that I keep of their life.
Connie @ Young and Relentless´s lastest post..Dreams of the Everyday Housewife
I put them in an album with everything else. I’m sorry, maybe it’s because I don’t have children of my own, but especially with wedding invitations and baby announcements, you don’t have to write anything down since it’s all written on there (names and dates and other vitals you usually write next to pictures in an album) so just taking two seconds and putting them in an album doesn’t seem that difficult.
My album is in loosely chronological order since I just throw the cards in there after they’ve spent the appropriate month or two on the fridge.
Again, maybe this is just because I don’t have kids. I consider the two seconds it takes to drop them in the album worth it so that when my friends who I never see come over, I can throw the picture back up on the fridge and make them feel glad about the effort they took to make it.
NGS´s lastest post..45 x 365 #102
For years and years and years, I have saved things in the following way: I grab a brown paper lunch bag, write the year on it (“2009″)and shove all such things in it. That’s where I keep concert ticket stubs, funny little notes from the kids and birth announcements from those near and dear. It isn’t pretty to look at, but it’s a quick and easy way to do it. Hope that helps!
Fairly Odd Mother´s lastest post..Debbie Does Dallas, but replace "Dallas" with "NYC" and "Debbie" with my name and then get your head out of the gutter
Baby announcements go into the same filing system that everything else in our house does – the big cardboard boxed marked “Go Through This”. It’s a box that I always mean to go through and take care of but somehow never do. If you were to come to my house and look through my big carboard box you would assume that baby pictures mean as much to me as reminders for parent/teacher meetings and Bath and Body Works coupons that expired three years ago.
For what it’s worth, I think that picture of Carson is adorable and he does not look blobby at all in it.
Jen´s lastest post..Does my face hurt? Because it’s killing me!
If they’re related to me, I’ll keep them with all my photographs. If they’re not related, they get trashed after their stint on the fridge.
Same with photocards we get at Christmas.
Annie´s lastest post..Adventures in Sleep Training
I keep all that stuff. Wedding invites, notes, thank you notes, cards, baby announcements, holiday cards, invitations – all of it goes in a box.
I never go through the box, but my great-great grandchildren will find it fascinating.
Ok, sometimes I go through the box, but only when I’ve had a lot of wine and am home alone.
Cause I kind of lean depressive, but it’s hard to feel unloved when you’ve got an entire box of stuff from people who love you.
Or at least like you enough to drop $3 for a card plus $0.42 on a stamp for you.
Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com
Amy´s lastest post..Social Media Overload
Printed Baby announcements? Really?
Wow – I’ve never gotten one – we just email each other the URL of the family gallery.
Maybe my friends are too geeky…
I am atrocious at any type of picture organizing. I keep announcements from good friends (toss the others) and they are thrown in the drawer with every other picture I own.
Susan´s lastest post..What day?
Wow, people still send out birth announcements?
People really don’t like me.
I’m old-fashioned in that I still have photo albums. All my children’s thousands of photos are on our computer. I gave up trying to print them out and put them in albums, so they just occasionally appear in photo frames and Christmas letters.
BUT, I use the photo albums for things like baby announcements and Christmas card photos that I actually want to keep.
Whether or not I keep them depends on how close I am to the sender. Of course I keep the family ones. But if it’s from an old friend that I haven’t seen in 15 years who just felt compelled to send announcements to everyone they had ever known, I don’t keep it. (i.e. I trash it.)
http://jennysuegotmarried.blogspot.com
Jen´s lastest post..Circular Logic
Oh!! Me!! I actually have a decent answer to this question. I feel like I’m in the “It Works for Me” section of Parenting Mag.
So, my toddler terrors adore my picture albums and I don’t want their sticky, nasty, picture destroying hands all over them. I buy cheap albums and put all the baby announcements, thank you notes, anything cute that would normally get thrown out in there. I put all the photo Christmas cards we get in there too. They have their very own scrapbooks to paw through, full of people they don’t know.
If you can stand the, ‘what’s her name’ questions constantly, it’s awesome.
anymommy´s lastest post..Golden Child
Becky Higgins just addressed this same issue on her blog! She is a scrapbooker, so maybe her method won’t work for you, but there were a lot of good ideas in the comments.
http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/
Barb @ getupandplay´s lastest post..Living Planet Aquarium
I have exactly the same sorting process that you do. They go on the fridge for “a while”, then go into a basket of photos that I can’t bear to throw away, but have no intention of ever organizing.
I end up chucking them. I put them on the fridge for a few weeks to a few months and then they are gone. Heartless I know…
Bridge´s lastest post..Blah…
I’m with Mia – I’ve never received a printed announcement, only e-mailed ones. For those, I archive the text & trash the photo.
Wedding invites: trash, definitely. Usually, I throw them out on the way home from the reception. But baby pics? And holiday pics too? THAT’s a conundrum.
But, in reality, I’m quite surprised when I go to someone’s house and they still have a picture of my kids on their fridge, so if I don’t expect them to keep my picture, I hope they will understand if I don’t keep a picture of theirs.
Texan Mama´s lastest post..Money… That’s What I Want
In the parallel universe where I am an organizing, time management guru . . . this is what I WOULD do. Cut out the pics from the cards/announcements, write the name of the baby/date/parents names on the back. Create a collage (you can also put names on front with a nice label maker). Place collage on matting paper. Frame (dollar store frames are great). Hang in office, family room, laundry room, play room. If you end up with too many, take a photo of your creation, print it, put it in an album.
Don’t ask me what I ACTUALLY do . . . ’cause I have no idea.
every couple of years I make a refrigerator scrapbook. It is full of all the picures I’ve had on my fridge… but if i didn’t scrapbook I would just pitch them. no one will know and you feel guilty for the moment. less clutter.
mojavi at simple things´s lastest post..improvements
I put them in a box with all the other pictures my friends send me of their kids. Though if it’s someone I just don’t care/know too well or don’t think it’s a really good picture, I do eventually toss them after they come off the fridge.
My kids love to go through the box and talk about their “friends” though.
And as an added bonus I am not obligated to care if they drool all over those pictures.
Honestly i don’t get the whole practice of baby announcements – think its just not done here in Scotland . Guess i just share shots online and such.
I would probably keep it for a while in the back of a drawer then throw it away and feel guilty for doing so
I remember that picture hanging up in the lounge! I actually have to give credit to my husband on this one….he started saving all of our baby announcements & christmas cards about 5 years ago. Every year he puts them all in this big photo album we have…it is fun to see how much they change from year to year.
If it is a friend I usually am making the announcement so I don’t normally get a duplicate-but if I do, it goes in the box with all my “work” stuff.
Domestic Extraordinaire´s lastest post..Haiku Friday: Help Save a Baby Edition
Frig for awhile here. Awhile seems to mean until the Christmas photo cards arrive or until I’ve looked at it long enough that all guilt is gone when I throw it away.
Michelle Smiles´s lastest post..Holy Consignment Sale Batman!
Um, I toss them. They have a stint on the fridge for as long there’s room and then they go into the trash. As do the Christmas card photos. I have a friend who keeps them all in an album. I wish I had that kind of motivation. Or time.
mine go on the fridge for about 6 months and then to the trash.
MommyNamedApril´s lastest post..It’s a Dancing Gringo.
i have an album i got as a wedding gift (6years ago) that has assortments of pictures; as most of my pics end up in a photo box or stay on my computer….
so, the few announcements i’ve gotten, i file away in there.
as for the xmas cards, i keep all cards (photo or not) in the basket from the year before. and when i take out xmas, i look thru them again and toss them all.
it is a shame how most of us put so much time, effort & money into these things that are good for, like, a minute.
but it would be a shame not to as well.
mpotter´s lastest post..vividity
Here’s the thing, after we moved for the third time six years ago, I realized that I never actually pulled any of those invitations or announcements out of the piles, boxes, and folders they ended up in. Once I figured that out, I decided to just throw them away. If I don’t need it or use it, it has to go.
*hangs head in shame*
Burgh Baby´s lastest post..Subliminal Messages? Where?
That’s a cute picture!
I put them on the fridge for a while then toss. And yes, I feel bad about it.
amy´s lastest post..Blissdom 09: Nashville Shopping
I put them on the fridge if it’s someone I really care about. (Let’s be honest – distant relatives are not going on the fridge, k?) Ideally, I then scrapbook them. But since having my own baby, I have not been so much a scrapbooker. More like a “put it in a stack to be scrapbooked later”-er.
Mary @ Giving Up On Perfect´s lastest post..Carnival Week: Not Me Monday
Nice to meet you! I too am in the market for ladyfriends.
Maria´s lastest post..the smell of success
@anymommy That IS a great idea and so belongs in Parents magazine OR!! on parenthacks.com. You should submit that! Seriously.
@Beth Your husband?? HE puts them in an album? I find this shocking and wish my husband could even FIND a photo album in our house w/o asking me.
@LaskiGal I’m thinking that a collage from this unartistic gal is probably not going to happen! But maybe this could be an great way to pass these remaining frigid winter days. My son LOVES scissors.
@Barb, Thank you for that link! How cool! Of course, I know myself and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll actually DO anything w/this giant stack of photos, but it’s nice to know what I COULD do!
I go with the fridge method, with just as vague of a time frame as you mentioned. That way, if the new baby’s parents or other friends/relatives magically happened to visit you and see your fridge and notice the picture, you’d get brownie points, and feel so good that you had it up then that you wouldn’t mind chucking it a few weeks later.
Alternatively, if you have it up for two or three months and no one notices or cares, again, you don’t feel so bad about tossing it.
Then again, I am all for tossing it. Really, I just do not need any more Freaking Paper Products lying around the house. But you’re right…it’s tough, once you know the amount of sweat and tears it takes to make one of those things.
LOVE anymommy’s idea!
(P.S. I am clueless about blog manners. Am I supposed to introduce myself when I first comment? I just came here after reading your post at Lotus’ place.)
SusanB´s lastest post..Do YOU know what a Nos-tris is?
@SusanB You can’t break any blog rules here unless your comment includes phrases like “you’re ugly” or “your writing makes me want to barf!”
And the paper products lying around my house! OMG, paper is TAKING OVER.
For me, it depends on the baby and who had it. Sometimes, especially with christmas photo cards, I cut out the pic and save that. The only thing I do is save adorable “save the dates” when it comes to weddings. Until they get divorced anyways.
(PS – miss you! Sorry I’ve been a BAD commenter)
A nice thing to do would be to save them until the kid is 18 then send it back to their parents on that birthday. Nice but practical? hmmmm.
kj @ Where my boys at?´s lastest post..T minus 11 days
I have often thought about asking people if they want them back. I have a gift bag full of photo cards and annoucements. I know, if they are like me, they get exactly enough and only have 1 left over for the baby book. There have been several times where I wish I had a couple extra Christmas cards or baby announcements. I might even send them out to the people I forgot the first time around. How terrible is that!!
At the risk of sounding like a cold-hearted bitch…I chuck most baby announcements too.
I keep the baby announcements, holiday cards, marriage invitations, birthday party invitations, thank you cards, etc. from close family and close friends. Luckily, most of those people seem to use the telephone more than the post service, so I don’t receive much of anything in the mail from them lol. And the rest? I keep for awhile, maybe on a fridge or on the mantle, and then they’re toast.
Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com´s lastest post..Birth of a nickname.
Also, I came over here from Sarcastic Mom, and I just wanted to say GREAT POST, and I completely identify, and GOOD LUCK finding some new gal pals =)
Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com´s lastest post..Birth of a nickname.
I wrote about this very same thing not too long ago on my decluttering blog: http://thejunkpyramid.blogspot.com/2009/01/too-adorable-to-throw-away.html
I think it’s okay to throw them away.
Stimey´s lastest post..I Like Napping. And Vicodin.
Well, assuming that the “return to sender” option isn’t available, I toss them.
Marinka´s lastest post..Lazy like a fox, or whoever it is that’s really lazy
Mom Blogs – Blogs for Moms…
…
man… I’ve got 2 year old baby announcements still held to the refrigerator by magnets. Err… well… the wife still has them. I would have probably just scanned them to the computer with all the rest of my photos.
But… that’s not up to me.
Joe´s lastest post..Suck On This – Part II
Chuck.
I mean look at it.
Put it on the fridge.
look at it somemore.
And then CHUCK. Do you think those friends are ever going to come over and say ‘hey I know my kid is 3 yrs now. But what did you do with the infant-looking-like-a-raisan photo I sent you with the announcement? why is it not enlarged and framed over your mantle?’
Chuck them. Now.
I give you permission.
The Glamorous Life´s lastest post..AdTalk: Women never forget