Box
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| All My Replies as of January 2015 |
In the beginning, when I only had a few replies, I started out storing them in a decorative box, with all the different royal replies together in the order I had received them. (I use to have memorized, who each reply was from, and for what occasion I wrote)
I kept all the replies in their envelopes and it was a little hard to flip through and look at each one. And then I got some replies from Duchess Sarah that were too big to be kept in the box, so they were stored elsewhere.
2 Binders
After about a year, I moved my replies to 2 binders, British & Foreign Royals. The Foreign Royals were divided by country and the British Royals were divided by individual royals.
When my binders started getting too full I divided the British royals into 3 binders (William/Kate/Harry, Queen/Philip/Charles/Camilla, and other British Royals), and moved the foreign royals to a bigger binder. Over time, I switched from having a section for each individual British royal to grouping them by couple/family. This is much easier for Christmas, anniversaries, births, etc. as I often write to the couple, not one royal.
Spent yesterday organizing My Royal letters into binders, makes it so much easier and nicer to flip through them.— Gert's Royals (@Gertsroyals) June 6, 2015
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| Late 2015, pictured is my 1 reply from Prince Charles I had at the time |
4 Binders
When my binders started getting too full I divided the British royals into 3 binders (William/Kate/Harry, Queen/Philip/Charles/Camilla, and other British Royals), and moved the foreign royals to a bigger binder. Over time, I switched from having a section for each individual British royal to grouping them by couple/family. This is much easier for Christmas, anniversaries, births, etc. as I often write to the couple, not one royal.
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| May 2017 |
7 Binders
Eventually, I divided up the British Royals even further and split the foreign R0yals into two binders. I also took the time to add cover pages and spines to each binder.
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| May 2018 |
I typed up title pages for each section and labeled the binders better. At the bottom of the title pages, I have stickers to note which years, I have replies from. (For some, where I have gaps in years, I have a sticker with an x through the year I wrote, but did not receive a reply.)
Each reply gets its own page (or two pages if needed). The replies are ordered based on when I received the reply. And I keep all the envelopes, except a few were too big to fit in the binder. Each page is numbered with a sticker, and the color denotes the year I got the reply. This makes it really easy to flip through and find a certain reply from a certain year. (This is especially helpful since some royals send out almost identical replies year after year.)
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| 9th & 10th Reply in the Queen & Prince Philip Binder |
To make it easy to flip through the binder's different sections, I put red Washi tape on each of the title pages.
20 Binders
Eventually, I decided to split each country into its own binder and separate out the extended British Royal Family a bit more. (I may eventually give each British Royal Couple/family a binder, but right now I don't have enough replies from each to warrant that.)
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| Jan 2023 |
For most binders that covered more than one couple, I broke it up into sections by family/couple. The only exceptions are the monarchies where I have only received a few replies (i.e. Norway & Sweden). These different sections may eventually become their own binder if they get big enough. Like in the image above, King Albert & Queen Paola have been separated from the rest of the Belgium Royals as that Binder was getting too packed.
In the example below, the Monaco Royals are all stored in the same binder but are now divided by royal.
I got rid of the little circle stickers, as I never maintained that and they just fall off. Instead, each section is broken up by decade. And I put some Washi tape to help you find the sections. 2010s is light blue, and 2020s is dark blue.
In addition to splitting up the binders, I also got some new heavy-duty binders and swapped out some old binders that were falling apart, or the rings kept opening.
With the death of Queen Elizabeth in the UK, I decided to start a 2nd volume for Charles & Camilla and William & Kate. Both binders were getting sort of full, and this way, we have a good divide between the two eras. And what we would expect to be a change in stationery and possibly how they handle their mail.
That leaves me now with 3 binders, that are "finished" and won't get any more replies added:
- Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Philip (2014-2022)
- Prince Charles & Duchess Camilla (2014-2022)
- The Cambridges (2014-2022)
And those can be stored, in a little less accessible place, as I won't need regular access to them.
