What to do with sentimental pile-up?

[bluebirdiemama]

I'm trying to so hard to reduce all this stuff we have everywhere. Even though it's hard with things like books or toys, they are still just things and in the end you can decide which half of the toys have to go.
But what about sentimental stuff?
I just don't know what to do with it. I'm talking paintings by the kids, special little things with a story behind it, birthday cards from older family members. I don't want to end up with boxes everywhere, filled with non-useful things. But when I look at each thing individually I feel like I can just, throw it away!

What you do you guys do?

[mkksmom]

I have been taking pictures of things, and then getting rid of them.

[bluebirdiemama]

That's a good idea...... we have stacks of paintings that we could still kinda keep that way

[spedteacher30]

If you're us, you put it in the basement, and then never look at it, and then finally, five years later, throw it away when the basement floods from the melting record-breaking snow that occurred this winter.

It was actually kind of liberating to have the decision taken from us.

[mkksmom]

Originally Posted by spedteacher30

If you're us, you put it in the basement, and then never look at it, and then finally, five years later, throw it away when the basement floods from the melting record-breaking snow that occurred this winter.

It was actually kind of liberating to have the decision taken from us.

Haha! I do that too. Minus the flooding, thankfully. We are due for some basement sorting. I still have college books down there from 10 years ago.

Oh and I have the same tendency to save cards from older relatives. My idea recently was to just keep the most recent ones, but I haven't put it into practice yet. Maybe the photo thing would work for that too. I mostly use that for my dd's art work and things like my birthday pin from our Disney trip.

[orangecanoe]

I have a tendency to want to save sentimental stuff as well. I've tried to pare down with the thought in mind that if I'm not going to display it where I can see it often and remember the giver/moment that made it sentimental in the first place then I don't need to keep it.

For artwork, I strung a line across the kids area in the kitchen and that has all the best/favorite artwork since then. At the end of dd's school year, I intend on taking two from each kid to save and tossing the rest.

I'm glad that I held onto a lot of the cards my grandmother had sent me because I loved her handwriting and she wrote really thoughtful messages. I picked one of my favorite and have it displayed on one of my bookshelves.

[Drummer's Wife]

I stick a lot of it in rubber maid totes and store in the garage. I am odd in that sometimes I toss things easily (cards, drawings, little momentos), and other imes I want to save them all. Often, they get stuffed on the large junk drawer until it gets gone through.

Taking digital pics is a great compromise!

[jennifercp8]

I have a single tote for sentimental things that are non-display for each member of the family. In mine, I have t-shirts from plays I directed, programs from my college performances, etc. My DH has high school sports jerseys, his letterman jacket, and things from the military. When we add things, we try to take others out to purge.

I scrapbook the cards, basically just adhering them to plain black pages, and my DS enjoys flipping through his card scrapbook. I don't have piles of artwork yet, so I don't exactly know what I will do with those.

[mamadelbosque]

Ooh, I *LOVE* the scrapbooking card idea! Thats fantastic!! I might have to try that

[sunnysandiegan]

I photograph or scan certain items. I scrapbook them in order to tell the story. The journaling makes the object come alive! I save the most meaningful cards (to me) and scrapbook those by making a pocket on the page and slide the cards in the pocket. I can easily remove them by sliding my hand inside the page protector. I go through and read them every so often. My DD is enthralled with my old scrapbooks. Some cards I have cut apart and adhered the front somewhere and the message elsewhere in my scrapbooks or when I needed to fill the space I put both cut parts on the same page.

I am currently working on a series of scrapbooks covering the thirteen years between leaving home at age 17 and meeting DH at age 30. This timeframe is FILLED with sentimental items! I gathered it from all over the house and merged several notebooks and various sources all into one album titled "My Life Journey" (three physical books in the series). This is releasing a lot of "stuff" emotionally and physically.

For DD's special items, I photograph her holding/wearing the item and have her write a little story to go with the item. When she was too young to write the story, I wrote it for her while she dictated it to me. (I scan her handwritten stories. I typed the other ones directly into the comments of the photo.) She is not nearly as sentimental as other girls her age that we know. She regularly goes through her belongings and recycles or gives items away.

DH has a box of trophies and medals from his track star days. He has another box of mementos, too, and a scrapbook his mom made him before college. At this point, I think he has more sentimental items than DD & I combined. They are easily stored in his side of the closet and are very reasonably sized.

Oh, speaking of closets, I have DD's baby clothes that *I* loved (for various reasons) in my side of the closet and am slowly working on a quilt to showcase them.

DH & I photographed our old t-shirts from various events and activities. We then wore them until they became rags. We still have the rags in many cases and the picture of the t-shirt in good condition.