What’s the difference between meaningful memorabilia and sentimental clutter?
Some of us fill our rooms, closets, cabinets or boxes with items we have collected throughout the years, such as: ticket stubs, Playbills, old letters, newspaper clippings, dried flowers, locks of a baby hair, and so forth. There are emotional reasons we hold onto this sentimental clutter and it’s important to identify the reason why we keep it. Learn to distinguish between memories and trinkets.
How to Identify Meaningful Memorabilia and Sentimental Clutter
Meaningful Memorabilia are keepsakes that we want to display, and show off. These are memories that make us smile and remind us of happy experiences, milestones, memorable places and people we love.
Sentimental Clutter are items we keep out of obligation (inheritance), guilt, or as a symbol of un-realized dreams or roads not taken such as unfulfilled hobbies or projects. These memories weigh us down emotionally, therefore there’s no reason to hold on to the objects. Once you have identified and limited the memorable keepsakes, keep what you have space for, and find creative ways to display or preserve the rest.
Storage/Display:
- Take a photo/video and discard any bulky item
- Keep one item in series, get rid of the rest
- Give keepsakes to other family members who want and will treasure them
- Preserve photos or clothing such as old T-Shirts/baby blankets by making quilts
- Display several items in memory boxes or shadow box frames than can be hung on walls
- Use “eye pleasing” containers for easy access to store your keepsakes
- Use the “good china” as your everyday dishes–what better way to truly enjoy these!
- Consider rotating children’s artwork to be displayed in frames
Decluttering the Memorabilia
1. Pick a project, a section, or a box at a time
2. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to layout, declutter and organize your project– a half-hour and an hour to start. Then check-in, do you want to stop or continue? If you have momentum give yourself just enough time to finish THAT project and don’t start another
3. Don’t second guess your decisions. You will know if the item truly makes you happy, or if you start feeling inadequate, guilty, sad, or angry. Keep the good feeling memorabilia as this is what you truly treasure, what you will want to share with others and display.
“Declutter your Mind, your heart, your home.
Let go of the heaviness that is weighing you down.
Make your life simple, but significant.”
-Maria Defillo
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