Sentimental clutter plagues our attics, basements, closets, garages, and desks. These sentimental trinkets can keep us from moving forward with our lives physically and emotionally. If there is so much of the past taking up space in the present, there isn’t room to grow.
Photo of me as a kid on a field trip. Photos NEVER get thrown out, in my book, even the bad ones... although, maybe burning those fat-faced photos of me from college wouldn't be such a bad idea. Hmmm...Apparently, even Lindsay Lohan has recently figured out that the clutter in her life is suffocating her. Li-Lo, when you donate all of your old stuff, maybe you'll find the cute little Lindsay from The Parent Trap era. Bring her back, please.
How do you decide what stays and what goes in terms of sentimental clutter?
This is hard. For me, I have moved something like 8 times in 9 years, so I am constantly boxing and re-boxing stuff. After you've moved something you don't love a few times, you start to resent it. I have had some boxes that I haven't even opened after a few moves, and it occurred to me that those things could be very useful to someone else. That helps me out - thinking about how the item might bring joy to somebody else (when it's just collecting dust in your closet). I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff with this in mind. Photos though, never go. I agree. They're priceless and we can make the room for them.
ReplyDeleteLook how stylish you are even as a little girl! Love your coat :) I'm a pack rat as well and have been trying to get better over the last year... something you have to do after moving twice. Greeting cards/ photos/ and trinket gifts really back up forus. I started using the Greeting Cards and Photos as bookmarks. This way they used and seen more
ReplyDeleteI would like to know the answer to this, so I am going to try to visit this little problem of mine in the near future. Everything that my mom has given me from my childhood, I have kept (much to Ted's chagrin). Tupperware after tupperware...but I love that stuff! I can't get rid of it :( BUT, I am going to try to sift through "other" sentimental things and figure out what to toss, i.e. that ridiculous shirt that I bought when studying abroad in France 10 years ago that I haven't worn for 9. :)
ReplyDeleteCutie pie picture!
I second bringing Parent Trap Li-Lo back!
ReplyDeletehow cute were you!!! I am so bad about saving things, I had no idea it was so bad until we started packing to move! I just can't seem to LET GO! yet I refuse to become the woman on hoarders who had dead cats in her house.. yuuuuck!
ReplyDeleteThere honestly is no rhyme or reason to how I get rid of sentimental clutter. Sometimes I have a specific reason and other times I just want to purge.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh, that little boy behind could so easily be Nick!. So cute!
ReplyDeleteI love Unclutterer. My favorite UnC tip for letting go of sentimental clutter is to take lovely, arty photographs of items and then give them away. That way you still have a representation of the memory, but it takes up MUCH less space.
ReplyDelete