Earlier this holiday season I enjoyed reading both Celebrating and Savoring A Simple Christmas by Money Saving Mom’s Crystal Paine and Planning a Stress Free Christmas by Life Your Way’s Mandi Ehman.
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Both e-books mention creating a digital address book. I am going to be 100% honest, I don’t have the slightest clue how to even create a digital address book (could someone please make a pinnable post for that).
I still, however, need a way of keeping track of addresses. I don’t have the smallest penmanship either, so the traditional write in the tiny lines style books do not work for me.
Plus I have two letters of the alphabet that need way more than one page and many other letters that don’t need one at all.
One year after one of my cards I sent out got returned to me because I had copied the address down wrong I took a long run and a hot shower and came up with a plan to cure my address book woes.
Supplies For A Simple Address Book:
Inexpensive brag book style photo album (cost $1 at most stores), scissors, blank index cards, pen, glue, or tape
Steps
Basically my address book is like a glorified sticker book from my childhood.
1. Figure out how many index cards your brag book can hold and get out that many blank index cards.
2. Take a quick look through your current address-keeping system, write down what letters you need in your book (going by either first or last name). Put these in alphabetical order.
3. Write one needed letter at the bottom corner of each index card. When I did this I realized I only really need 10 cards and 9 letters. I then filled up the extra pages with blank cards in case I need to add more letters later.
4. Put cards in alphabetical order in the brag book.
5. Each time you receive a Christmas card, change of address notice, or other correspondence get out your scissors and cut out the return address label, and glue or tape it on the right card in your book.
Here is an example of what the inside of my address book looks like. I used stickers instead of address labels as an example because well…I don’t think my loved ones want their home addresses aired here on my blog.
This system is not going to win you Martha Stewart awards but it works.
What I love most about this simple address book system is that it is easy to update, if the people move simply tape their new address label over the old.
I also love that is so adaptable, if I make a friend who adds a new letter to my book I just take the cards out and shift them accordingly. If I get one letter page that is too crowded I add another page with that same letter.
Looking for organization tips? Follow my Organization board on Pinterest.
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Love this idea!!! This is great! I already have the brag book and index cards, so I’m planning to do this soon! I’ve been intending to organize addresses for YEARS now, and it’s only gotten crazier over time as more people have moved, married, had more babies, etc… Thank you so much for sharing this idea!