A couple of things come to mind....

Some stores (like Barnes & Noble, Modells, Hallmark, supermarkets) will access your membership info via your telephone # so it is not necessary to carry all of those cards.

Many stores provide smaller ID tags for a keyring. You could keep a separate keyring just for these and if you have one, then leave it in your car, perhaps.

If you have a car....

For places I don't shop at regularly, I keep a vinyl Business Card holder in my car for regular size membership cards and access them as needed.

Another "leave in car" option is to keep these cards in a visor organizer (under $5. at Walmart). These have storage pockets. Here's an example:

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?PRODID=10012092&CATID=259

Store credits/giftcards (items with monetary value) are kept in my wallet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Business card book...something like this one

Concerning gift cards, be sure to check to see if they have an expiration date (many of them actually do!). If you have a daily-reminder wall calendar, mark the expiration dates down. I'd put a note on, say, 6 months in advance and other sporadic dates saying "You have a $50 Borders card to use up!" so that they remind you that you've got them tucked away and need to redeem them. There's nothing worse than realizing too late that you've lost out on $50 of shopping power.

For all those store "preferred customer cards," here's what I do. Most of them I put on a keyring. For cards I use frequently that didn't offer a keyring version, I punch a hole in the corner (away from the bar code or swipey strip).
In my purse, I also carry a small rectangular zip pouch that I carry coupons, receipts, paint chips, etc. in, and I tuck in most of the other cards I have and the Bed Bath & Beyond 20%-off coupons (I never shop there without one!).

Sometimes I'm tempted to just leave that pouch in the glove compartment (as long as none of those receipts have my full credit card number on them!), so it's there if I need it. Always happens that if I leave the pouch at home, that'll be the time that I need something in it.

We don't really use too many of these extra type cards. Our grocery stores go with the phone # as well as B & N. One card I carry is my teacher's discount for the bookstores. Otherwise, we have a spot in DH's office where we keep the Office Max, Office Depot and those type of cards. We don't impulse shop, so he will get the appropriate card when he makes the trip and then puts it back.

We've actually ended up using the key ring mini cards with the kids. When I send them to the store to get bread or something, they already have the rewards card on the key ring for their bike locks.

It seems like I carry more cards for things like health insurance ID, AAA, library card, car insurance, etc. So two credit cards and two grocery cards are in an outside zippered compartment of my purse and all of the other cards are kept where most people would have a wallet. I dislike having to pull all of that out when I just use the same two cards all of the time.

Gloria

Any place I shop at least monthly is kept in my wallet. With a hectic family schedule I can't alway plan in advance--I fit in shopping when it's time/location convenient.

My mom, who still does all her shopping only on a certain day of the week, will sit down the night before and gather whatever she needs for the store she plans to visit. That wouldn't work for me. For example, I usually do drug store shopping on days when rush hour traffic doesn't have me already running behind. If traffic is heavy, I'll wait until another day to stop at the drug store.

I once bought an inexpensive zippered credit card pouch that I use for all my 'odd ball' infrequently used cards - rewards, gift cards, membership, business cards, my local pizza place that punches everytime I buy a pizza. It sits in a corner of my purse. Has an internal key ring that I really should use for a spare house key in case I lose my key ring.

I searched for 'credit card pouch' and found a picture of something like it.

Here is a link that might be useful: on amazon - 'credit card pouch'

I found the answer last year but didn't think to post it here! It works nicely; the clerks think it's so cool

Here is a link that might be useful: One Card

What Jessy said--I have a separate little vinyl wallet-thingie, and I keep all those cards in it, in a zippered pouch in my purse.

That's really something, Mustangs!

So, you send all your bar codes to this guy and he puts them onto one card?

Graywings,

It's easier than that! You enter your numbers from your club cards into the form on the website, select a store from the drop down menu, then print out your own card.

I printed it on card stock paper, cut it out on the dotted lines, folded it in half. Now I have 4 bar codes on one side 4 on the other. Being anal, I felt good about it because you can have 8 accounts per card and I had 4 grocery stores and 4 others.

Took me 10 minutes tops.

Use those gift cards up as soon as you can. In this economy, any business can go down the drain and not honor them. I personally hate getting gift cards as gifts.