Simple Ideas for Organising Plastic Cards in Your Wallet, Purse or Handbag …

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I really do miss the days when my wallet only held money and maybe 2 or 3 plastic cards! Now when most people open their purses or wallets they seem overloaded with plastic cards of all kinds. There’s Library cards, Credit Cards, EFTPOS cards, Store Cards, Loyalty Cards, Gift Cards, Reward for Purchase Cards, Membership Cards and the list goes on.

 

So if your purse or wallet is groaning under the weight of all these cards and splitting at the seams, here are a couple of tips and suggestions:

 

  • Start by decluttering … empty your wallet/purse and lay out all the cards on the bench or table.

 

  • Now take a serious look at those cards and decide which ones you actually use. Create 3 piles … cards you use all the time, cards you use sometimes and cards you simply don’t use at all.

 

  • Take the cards you use all the time and return them to your purse or wallet. For me, this includes my debit card, credit card, Drivers License, Medicare Card, Private Health Card, Staff I/D Card, and 2 or 3 Reward cards for which I get points at places I shop regularly.

 

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  • Take the cards you never use and either cut them up and get rid of them (if you’re confident they are no longer required) or store them at home in case you do ever need them.

 

  • Now for the remaining cards which you only use occasionally, one of the following ideas might work:

 

If there are enough card slots, store them in your purse or wallet.

 

If you don’t have enough card slots, this is the method I use. Punch a hole in each plastic card with hole puncher, thread the cards onto a hinged ring and then reclose the hinge. This can then be stored in your purse/wallet or a zip in your handbag. These rings can be found at Hardware Shops or Scrapbooking/Craft Stores … see the photo below. A word of caution if you choose this method, be careful where you punch the hole by checking the front and the back of the card so you don’t punch through the magnetic strip, barcodes or any other important information like membership numbers. I tend to only use this method for things like video cards, library cards and store membership cards and avoid it for more important cards like credit cards, EFTPOS cards, Drivers Licences, etc.  This method keeps all my cards together, makes it easy to flick through to find the card I need and saves me searching for a particular card in my wallet.

 

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The third idea is to use a small folder with plastic pockets similar to the ones used for storing business cards. This is a great option if you have a large number of cards and you’re a really “visual” person as you can easily see all the cards by simply turning the pages. Its biggest disadvantage though is that it’s separate to your wallet/purse and it is quite big … but it does work. If you do opt for this option, make sure you buy a Card Holder that has enough pockets to store all your cards so that you don’t have to double them up and also make sure you remember to take it with you if you just grab your purse rather than your whole handbag.

 

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Whichever method you use, group the cards together in such a way that it makes sense to you i.e. you could store them alphabetically, you could store the most frequently used cards at the front of the folder, you could store all similar cards together in group, it doesn’t matter as long as it makes sense to you and works for you.

 

Whichever method you use will largely depend on the size of your wallet. I like a bigger wallet, keep the main cards in the slots and the remaining cards on a hinged ring inside … that works for me. So the message is simple … do what works for you.

 

So tell me, do you carry lots of cards in your purse or wallet and do you ever get frustrated with the sheer volume of cards you need to carry? Do tell …

 

 

Comments

  1. I love the ring idea. I have been tearing my hair out at what to do with all the bloody cards. It seems every shop you go into wants you to become a member and voila, they hand you another card. A wallet can only hold so many so I will buy one of those rings and store my cards that way. Brilliant! xx

    • Thanks Charlie … the ring is a very simple idea that I started using years and years ago! I get so frustrated with the number of cards we get offered in shops and I find myself knocking most of them back now because I just don’t want to have to carry them x

  2. I LOVE that ring idea. I have just emptied my wallet and put all my store cards in the drawer at home thinking I wont need them and then guess what – TWICE in one week I could have used them lol xx

    • Welcome back, Miss Sonia … go grab those cards, put them on a ring and stick them in a zip in your handbag … they won’t clutter your purse and at least you will have them when you need them!