How can I reuse or recycle card and cheque book wallets?
A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a panic about the situation with my personal paperwork. For our business, I’m pretty good – everything even remotely related to anything goes in a folder, which goes in the filing cabinet, and promptly gets forgotten about until it’s next needed. My personal stuff – bank statements, utility bills and all that jazz – though, who knows? There was a box in the living room, a box file in the bedroom and about five separate stashes of papers in the spare room-cum-study-cum-store-room.
So a few weeks ago, as I said, I had a bit of a panic and sorted everything out. Everything is all neatly filed now and if I need the July 2003 credit card statement (balance: £00.00, charges: £00.00) from a card I never used, I know exactly where it will be. Hurrah!
But, during my sorting, as well as finding we had kept a metric ton of waste paper stored up there, I found three cheque book and credit card wallet sets. They were included in the opening-account packs of “freebies” in my bank-hopping days at university.
The cheque book one is, by the feel of it, cardboard covered in vinyl and the cheque-book shaped, while the credit card one is vinyl with semi-opaque card sized pockets.
I thought about writing recipes on the back of old business cards and using the card one as a mini cookbook in the kitchen but since the pockets are not transparent, I’d have to take the cards out to read them – which kinda defeats the point of protecting them.
So any suggestions?
If you can, put some scratch paper in it with a pen and keep it in your purse.
Kids love this stuff!
Donate them to a thrift store, I know I my holder gets worn out pretty quickly.
If they don’t have a bank name on them, you can always take them to your bank for them to hand out again.
Use them to hold your drivers license, CC, etc for when you want to go out without a purse.
Coupon organizer.
You might try donating them to local shelters. Domestic Violence shelters work to help get women checking accounts, and they might be useful.
I had this issue recently. My bank wouldnt take it back neither would the charity store so I just slit it open and recycled the card and sadly threw away the plastic
Being a crafty sort, I would recover them with matching fabrics. Make a set for my self and some to giveaway. I use one of the card ones in my bag for all the store loyalty cards I have as it gets confusing having them all in my purse.
Janette
Excellent, Excellent Blog! A lot of fun and very useful to read! Thank you for the information! I am always looking for ways to recycle and reuse rather than toss!
Sorry, I didn’t see the “make suggestion” until I pressed the button!
I would use the little one for my own business cards and/or pictures (small ones of course) and toss in handbag and go. And for the larger (checkbook) one, I would use that to store receipts until I got home to unload it and put back in purse for the next round! I don’t balance my checkbook til I get home, so I do keep my receipts all in ONE place in my handbag until I balance the checkbook!
How about scrapbooking brag books? You can embellish them and then slip in photo’s they may not be acid free for archival purposes. The kids would enjoy decorating these up with pics of there friends or recent holidays to stick in their lunch bag to show the kids.
If the vinyl or plastic part of the cover is sturdy enough, you can cut it up and use it for craft supplies. If it’s medium weight, it can be cut and decoupaged or hot-glued (I made some flower brooches for a niece from my old cheque covers). If it’s heavy weight vinyl, it can often be appliqued as an accent on a handbag, or sewn together to make a larger clutch style purse.
As I have gone electronic with debit cards and electronic calendars, I have a batch of these holders in both clear plastic and colored vinyl. I would love to have a little instructions on your projects. thank you for sharing.
If the original packaging is mailed to you, there isn’t much you can do. But if you collect your card/chequebook at the bank, I would decline the item from the start. Just say, ‘I don’t need this. Please pass it along to another client who does.’ People are surprised to hear I don’t want something free. It seems the bank can pass it along as new for the next client if the packaging of the item is not too sealed up.
Keep memory chips in them.
Use as purse organizer.
Keep in them paper perfume samples and your purse will smell lovely. :)
I make magnetic photo frames for the fridge out of materials very similar to these folders. You could put photos in the holders and adhesive sheet magnet on the back. They would make great mailable gifts for grandma. I have the magnet on my site but you can also get it at most craft supply stores.
Keep a little collection of stamps.