Reusing Those Supplies ... Up to a Point

I sometimes get picked on a bit for reusing glassine envelopes and 102 cards a few times.  When I ship things, it's not a big deal.  Maybe the envelope looks a bit funny, but they have the right stamps in them.  But the last few months when we've been doing shows again, we get comments about how this folder says one thing and the label says something else.  I have always reused file folders, years later folding it over and using it again with some other label, or something else written on it.  Comically, when I looked at those folders at the show, I saw their history that no-one else would appreciate.  Some of them were originally used for writing projects back in the 1980s, and some had my Mom's handwriting on them, recycled again and again since the 70's.  None of these were terribly sloppy, we just try to save money when we can and it's easy for me to ignore the old writing, because I know it's not the current info.

Last weekend I bought a part of a hoard that was VERY messy.  

 

OMG, look at some of these.  I realize these boxes were for personal use, and the owner made packets and approval cards from them, and I was told they serviced want lists.  But at a certain point, all the crossed out numbers just make it hard to find what you're looking for. Even worse, there were stock cards, bits of stock sheets, and different size envelopes all stuffed together in random clumps.   Hardly any two adjacent items were in the same sized storage.

I just thought it would be fun to post some photos of these.  

There were envelopes with 10 or 12 numbers blacked out, then labels stuck on top to add more numbers, sometimes with extra scratchpad stuff on top: adding up more numbers or just stuff written for some unknown reason.

So, if you sometimes wonder whether your own envelopes have gotten a bit ragged, or you've crossed out too many old numbers and need some fresher options, you have probably not reached this level of dishevelment.

There's a difference between storage and presentation.  This was (just barely) storage.

It was fun going through and decluttering these boxes.  I didn't need every minimum value stamp in its own envelope.  I made them into 4-8 packets of each country, with some better items ($5+) kept as-is, and will scan them on stock pages.  They went from a heavy messy heap about ready to implode under its own weight, down to some attractive lots that take up 1/4 of the space.  Maybe 1 in 6 of the envelopes was salvageable.  There were some good envelopes for small covers, which I am running short on.  I don't mind two or three cross-outs.  But the rest were not presentable.