4 Categories for Decluttering Sentimental Items more EASILY!

THANK YOU for watching!! You can find the free printable here: www.ithinkwecouldbefriends.com/2019/12/05/declutte… and the photo app I mentioned is Google PhotoScan :)

Story time: I have a beautiful necklace that belonged to my grandmother that I kept in a box in the top of my closet. The last time I decluttered that space I came across it again and decided that my grandmother bought the piece to wear it and enjoy it so that is what I was going to do. I wear the piece at least once a week. I was recently in a business that we frequent and the cashier commented on my necklace. I told her it belonged to my grandmother and she said I have a piece that I love that belonged to my mom but I am afraid of losing it and I said to her ... think about it like this...when you are no longer on this earth ...what will happen to that piece of jewelry? Will anyone in your family even know how much it meant to you or will they just find a piece of jewelry in your jewelry box and give it to charity or maybe sell it in a yard sale or maybe one of the women in your life will keep it and wear it. I told her she should get the piece out and wear it and enjoy it and if she happened to lose it well she had a chance to get some enjoyment from it while she owned it instead of it just sitting in a box and hopefully it would give joy to the person that finds it if she in fact ever did really lose it. She told me thank you for saying that to me ..I needed to hear that! We put things away to protect them because we love them ...but how much do we really love them if we NEVER use them or look at them??

I just watched toy story 3. At the end, Andy couldn't bear to throw those particular toys away. He ended up taking them to a little girl who was so happy to recieve them. He played with the toys along side the little girl one last time and honored the memories he had with those toys. Even when he drove away, he said to the toys "Thanks guys" then he drove off to college. He had trouble giving woody over, but he wanted those items to continue being enjoyed and contribute bringing joy to others as they did to him. He didn't Really want them in a dark attic. It made me cry and I felt like such a huge baby/goober. But really, it's a true lesson there. And, the toys WANTED to be played with, not stored away to be forgotten. Anyway... 😭😭😭

When not keeping sentimental items and old photos, be sure to check with all your extended family members. When my mother was downsizing her photos, she ran across one of an old college friend. She tracked down that person's daughter to see if she'd like the photo. It turned out that the daughter's house had recently burned down, along with all the family photos. Now the photo my mother had was this daughter's ONLY surviving photo she had of her mother. These sentimental items are irreplaceable, and while you shouldn't keep them if they're not meaningful to you, that doesn't mean they're not meaningful to everybod else. Be thoughtful.

Two days ago I went thru 3 suitcases filled with cloth memorabilia items. The wedding gowns are going to a charity that makes gowns for babies that have not even been able to leave the hospital with their mom and dad. The hot pad crocheted doilies and vintage linens go to a couple of friends that replied to my Facebook post about them. And the vintage aprons will become a quilt by another friend. I was pumped, so this afternoon I figured I could tackle what was remaining of my paper type memorabilia,,,, I downsized a tremendous amount, but once I got to being a cry baby about missing the people, I neatly stacked what was left for the next time I have a rise of courage. The most interesting thing was,,, I found a letter written to my dad by a fellow soldier on March 11, 1944 thanking him for $2 he had given him at a train station 300 miles away from our hometown. That was what started the tears,,,, I just needed to say this in a safe place. If you decide to delete it, I’ll be fine, it’s the acknowledging of my feelings that I needed to do.

When I did the Konkani method I realized that a huge chunk of the stuff in our house was just sentimental or stuff I was keeping for emotional reasons rather than rational ones. I put it all in the basement, and right away the rest of our house functioned SO much better. The day I tackled the sentimental stuff was so hard. Turns out almost none of it sparked joy. Most of the items made me feel grief or loneliness or catapulted me back to times when I felt insecurity and turmoil. Lots of guilt. Some bittersweet. Very little joy. I have gotten rid of almost all of it and it feels so freeing.

Iv been married over 52 years. Let me tell you. Date you photos and only keep the best. I have a big amount to deal with because life happens.

I am married 48 years, after my mom passed away, and we helped my dad move to adult living, we had to go thru Their 69 years of their life together, I realized then to really minimize and simplify even more then I already was, I didn’t want my children to have one day to do this with our things. They now joke and say they can clean out my and my husbands home on a Saturday afternoon lol.... but what I did do as far as photos, one rainy day sat on my bed, and decluttered all our 50 more years of photos, we threw out every double, every photo that was just scenery, and only we kept the best of the best. I was lucky to find some sort of plastic bin with dividers, and all our photos are in this bin, each divider is year by year, it has a handle, so easy to take out and look thru. I now only keep prized pics, Anything we did not use, need or want thru this major declutter was given to a woman’s shelter. I also found out the less we have the less we need, and the less we want. Minimalism is a beautiful thing, it really teaches you what’s important to you.

Couple years ago my granny died. I loved her as she was my mother, she was very dear to my heart. When she died I only wanted her teapot, that is something what realy remaind me on my childhood with her. Now, every time a have tea I think of her and honor our time together. Nothing else I needed. Just that. 💗💗💗💗

I just went through our stuff last weekend and purged so much! Some of this stuff we hadn't seen in years. Did we forget that person? No. Were the memories still there? Yes...without the stuff. I am 57, so have some advice. The photo albums take up so much space. I spent a couple of hours removing all the photos and just storing the photos and tossing the albums. Much less space. Also- ( I started this a long time ago) write on the back who, when, where and what. You might know who these people are, but will anyone else when you are gone? I have smaller totes now. Each of us got one tote to keep. I sorted and put things from each child in their tote and then some personal things of mine I tossed in, too. Our oldest son is coming up soon to get his, the other still lives here, so his will stay until he moves on. I threw a ton of cards away. I sorted for each occassion and each person. Then I picked out a few of the very best of if there was a personal note inside instead of just a signature. The rest were tossed. I gave each boy a card of ours that was to each other for them to have of their parents. I tossed envelopes, negatives and all sorts of things. I condensed things down and tossed old jewelry boxes and things that just took up too much room. I had photos stored in picture frames, which had seen better days for sure, and took the photos out and tossed the old frames, some of which came to us with cracked glass. No idea why I saved them like that in the first place, but at the time in my life then, it was just easier to throw it in a tote "to deal with later". I have not forgotten these people who were so important in my life. I never will. These things, if gone, wouldn't be a travesty for me. I don't NEED them to know where I came from. One thing, I think, is the best thing to keep is a journal of some sort, that you can write down different memories of those who have gone on for your children, so when you are gone, the stories live on. Write down the stories you have heard. And if you have someone older still here, sit down and talk to them and write down what they say in their words. Its awesome to have later. The feeling of having my closet back is amazing and having space that we can use is so worth all the purging.

I loved what you said about not having our homes be time capsules. We keep "inheriting" items from family members who pass on and I feel like I'm being drug down into the past instead of living in the present and moving forward. A few items can give off a lovely sentimental feeling - too many and you feel like you're stuck in an old movie.

My children have children... When the hubs and I downsized from house to apartment I spent a month going through memories and sorted into totes for each child and grandchild. Guess what they all got for Christmas that year?

This was the permission I needed to stop feeling guilt about not finishing my scrapbooks! Thank you. I'm going to keep moving forward.

I love that I can hang my high school jacket, Alumni shirt, and my grandmother's blanket on my bedroom walls where I can see them every day.

My kids are now 19 and 21. I have finally started going through their school projects and papers and I saved EVERYTHING! I recently chose the best and have recycled the rest. Younger Moms .... don’t wait until they are grown up to do this!!! 😊

My sister-in-law has an incredible tradition with Christmas cards. They keep them in a napkin holder on the dining table and each evening, they pray for one family and then rotate that card to the back of the stack. I suppose birthday cards could be put on the nightstand for bedtime prayers and anniversary cards could be put wherever the couple does their devotions. They do remind people before Christmas each year so they can send a card if they want their family prayed for regularly. I'm sure that people send cards because they love everything about the idea. I'm sure that my nephew is learning to pray, to be thoughtful and to invest in relationships.

I had an "ah-ha" moment the other day: there are two big boxes that have been sitting in my garage for 7 years full of my grandma's collection of fancy teacups. And in the kitchen there's a mug with pictures of cows that she bought at a thrift store for my oldest son, because he was so impressed with the cows on her farm. Guess which one is really important to us and the kids ask for all the time? It's time to get rid of the teacups.

i have a lot of sentimental kitchen things, and am slowly getting over my fears and starting to use them. i love seeing them every day and sharing stories with friends about my relatives that passed them on to me. to help get over my fear that one day i will break these things, i try to remember this fabulous quote: the glass (vase, bowl, etc.) is already broken. “You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. “For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”

I’ve watched a lot of videos on how to go through sentimental items, and this is the best I’ve seen yet. Your four categories bring a fresh perspective to such a sensitive matter. Thank you!

With my sentimental cards I hole bunch them and create like a little “book”. I did this also with the cards from my daughter’s baby shower.