Stumbling Block: Sentimental Items
Through tidying, I’ve learned I’m not especially sentimental and my first instinct is to say, “Things don’t matter. Only people and relationships matter." But the truth is we have very emotional attachments to our possessions, and sentimental items are a part of our makeup. So how do we honor this without yielding a legacy of clutter? The answer: Curate. Choose. Be selective. If the purpose of sentimental items is to be a memory prompt, they will do their job best if they are carefully chosen, few in number, and preferably small in size (so you can have them displayed among the things you use daily). Find the little thing that stands for the big memory.
After my grandfather died, my mom asked if there was anything I wanted from his home. It was a place I rarely visited, filled with things that didn’t hold any memories for me. Besides, I didn’t need any one thing to remind me of my grandfather. But I found that I wanted something, and I decided on a footed glass bowl. I could have filled my home with all sorts of souvenirs of my grandfather, but it would not have had the same effect. It would have been too diffused. When things are carefully chosen, you value them more and are more engaged with them. If you treat everything as special, then nothing is special.
You can keep boxes and boxes of items, or you can choose a single object and saturate it with memories.
The same advice holds true for other types of sentimental items:
Children’s Artwork
If you keep every drawing your child made in kindergarten, you are going to end up with a huge amount of paper that’s not very interesting. A folder of six things, on the other hand, is manageable and fun. You might actually take that off the shelf and look through it. Keep the highlight reel and let go of the rest. Ask: What is the best? What is iconic? Once you’ve been selective, services like Plum Print and Artkive will professionally digitize your child’s creations in a custom art book.
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Artkive: use code VICTORIA20 for $20 off
Photos
If you often take multiple shots in an effort to capture a decent photo, you might find yourself with an ever-growing camera roll in need of some de-cluttering. Luckily, apps like Flic, ALPACA, and Slidebox exist to help organize and clear photos efficiently. I recommend doing a quick audit every couple of months. Once you’ve narrowed down your favorites, get them into an album ASAP with help from an app like Chatbooks, Mixbook, Recently, One Upon, or the countless other options available that make the photo book process fast and easy. Use the autofill feature and handwrite captions later (or not).
If you have many printed photos, toss any duplicates (including those almost duplicates) and photos that are under- or over-exposed or blurry. Photos of scenery, distant subjects, or people you don’t know can also go.
Cards and Letters
Like books, cards and letters have served their purpose once you’ve read them. If you find yourself storing an expanding collection, it’s worth asking yourself why. Do you feel like it would be disrespectful not to save them? Or you might want to refer back to them someday? Is it really worth your time and space to keep them? An easy starting point is to recycle any cards that just have a basic signature or are from people you don’t know very well. From there, be selective- can one card represent the many? And for the ones you decide to keep, find ways to enjoy them. Hang them, frame them, or create a small memory box (there is a discipline enforced by the size of the box- once it's full, it’s time to edit).
For people with strong sentimental attachments to possessions, bringing in an outside person- a friend or a professional organizer (hi!)- can significantly ease the editing process. Sometimes we need someone else to bear witness for our appreciation for things, and then we can let them go. “These books were my dad’s.” “My mom gave me this necklace.” “These are my grandfather’s elementary school transcripts.” “This was the first big purchase I ever made.” It can also be helpful to take a photo, and then you can let the physical thing go. You have the memory. Just make sure you get that photo in an album.
