Organizing Your Correspondence

[Caitlin]

Hello dear LetterMoians! It’s the last day of LetterMo, and perhaps you have received one or more letters. Let’s talk organization! How do you track your incoming and outgoing letters or postcards? What are some ways that you organize your received correspondence after you have replied? Are you an archivist and can recommend some specific storage solutions? Tips and links welcome.

[Gary Smith]

I note arrival date, date read, date replied and date mailed on the incoming pieces of mail — except when I forget which happen more often than I’d like. I carry 10-15 pieces of the oldest mail with me in a writing case and pull the oldest letter out of this when it’s time to write another piece of mail — except when I’ve just written to that particular pen pal. When that happens I shuffle their letter back 4-5 places so I will hit it again in a week or so. As to incoming mail I neatly stack all mail face down on my desk so when I need to replenish the letters in my writing case I can flip it over and pull a good selection off of the bottom of the pile which “theoretically” stays in chronological order. I say “theoretically” as the pile tumbles off the desk multiple times a year into an unorganized pile which just gets tossed back onto the desk with minimal resorting.

Is anyone else sensing a pattern here? A pattern where I attempt to do things logically but everything ends up in a huge mess at some point? That’s my system in a nutshell. Well, except for postcards which I periodically pull out of the pile and save back for trips we take. Sending out a postcard from home doesn’t seem right to me so they sometimes pile up to a staggering degree before it warms up enough for us to start traveling each year.

I have no links to organizational ideas because I’m apparently super unorganized and plan to remain that way if past actions are any indication. I know for certain that I lost one letter that arrived in late December or early January of this year. I have no idea where it went (I personally blame the ‘stelepoucke which are mischievous Little People of Creek Mythology) but I did remember starting to read the letter before getting distracted by more pressing matters so once I was sure it was gone I wrote to the pen pal in question and admitted what had happened. Hopefully they’ll understand and blame fairies or whatever mischievous creatures they have in her country’s folklore.

[Elizabeth]

Gosh Gary, thank goodness you actually remembered who the missing letter was from…
Sounds a bit like my organisational plans..
When a letter comes in, I put it in a letter rack. Not necessarily in order of receipt, or I might try to, but they get out of order. Or something too large will be separate. I don’t necessarily reply in order of receipt, as the most recent might be someone who hardly ever writes; someone more prompt will get a more prompt reply. Or it might be that there is a burst of inspiration for a particular correspondent, so I’ll rifle through to find them. Sometimes I pick out letters to take somewhere else in case I get a chance to write; most often I don’t, so they get shoved back in.
When the reply is done, I’ll note the date I did it on the envelope and put in order in a box. These ones do stay in order; unless a disaster. Every so often I will search through to dispose of the previous letters, so I just keep the person’s most recent one, and can check if I’ve not heard from someone for a long time. I might then chase them up in case something has gone astray, and use Lettermo or Xmas as an excuse to do this. If I don’t hear from someone for a couple of years, I presume they’ve stopped writing, but sometimes a much later one turns up!
For Lettermo, I print out 2 of the month calendars. On one I fill in the daily post in (sadly, mostly blank days this year), and the other is the post out. I write the number on the calendar as well as on the Lettermo label which I stick on the envelope. 28 this time.

[Malika]

Just before LetterMo I found a good suggestion on a website I now can’t find, but it has worked well for me so far!

I have a little notebook I keep at my writing desk (maybe 3″ by 5″). I split each page into 5 or 6 boxes horizontally, with a line across both pages. On the left side of the page I write incoming mail, and on the right side outgoing mail. I’ll note the date, who it’s to/from, and a note about the stationery I used or the contents of the letter. So let’s say I received a letter from Geraldine on February 2nd, and replied on February 10th, my notebook would look like this:

(left page) (right page)

Feb 2, Geraldine | Feb 10
Cute butterfly card | White paper, blue envelope, silver monogram seal
Introduction, favorite books | Introduction, Jane Austen, favorite hikes

If the letter I’m writing is to a new pen friend or I’m not replying to anything in particular, I’ll put an X in the left-hand box and just write my letter details in the right-hand box next to it. If it’s a letter/card that doesn’t need a reply, I’ll put an X in the right-hand box and just write the letter received details in the left-hand box.

The benefit of this system is that the blank right-hand boxes clearly show which letters I haven’t replied to yet. It’s also very satisfying to “complete” a page (i.e. all right-hand boxes have been replied to/filled in or X-ed out) – I use a paperclip to clip completed pages together so I know how far back I need to flip to find a letter I need to reply to. The drawback is that it’s going to be hard to keep track of individual pen pals over time – I’ll have to flip through and look for their name on every page. A spreadsheet or other digital system would be better for this (i.e. searchable) but the notebook is simpler and therefore I’m more likely to use it.

I don’t have a good system for organizing the actual letters yet. Right now I keep letters I need to reply to on top of my writing desk (I’ve been trying to keep it fewer than 3) and all the replied-to letters are in a box in my desk. I might put them in my filing system (the same boring system that keeps my tax documents and appliance manuals) but I’m not sure whether to organize by person or by date… I look forward to reading other folks’ suggestions!

I also take photos of all outgoing mail, so if it gets lost on the way I can either write it again or just send the photo. It’s also handy to refer to when getting a reply. The photos aren’t organized, just kept in a chronological album on my phone.

Happy writing, everyone!

[Michele Risner]

All incoming mail gets the date received on the front of the envelope and placed in a pile (oldest letter on top). I do use a website called penpal manager that I can log in date received; photo of the letter and other notes about the letter and sender. If the person is not in there, I add them, with as much information as I can about them that I got from their first letter. I can track all incoming and letters owed with this. It has helped me immensely since I started using it. I also use a digital planner and made an incoming mail list and an outgoing mail list, and log in all incoming and outgoing lettermo mail this way. I only use that method during lettermo though.

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