My babes are only 13 months old and already I am starting to collect things that remind me of the good old days and we’ve barely passed the first year mark!
It’s true. I am already having a hard time getting rid of things and with limited storage the challenge is finding a way to adequately honor the memories and continue to keep our sanity.
As the junk creeps in, the nerves tend to fray so what are some tips for knowing what to keep and how to keep it?
According to experts, the number one culprit for moms is children’s artwork. I found a few ingenious ways to give the art the love it deserves without having to keep it on the fridge for years.
Just take a photo! Not only are you saving the memory, you are preserving the memory for much longer than the life of a piece of water color soaked craft paper. If your kids argue, tell them you are creating a catalogue raisonné – a digital catalogue of their precious creations. You can even make these photos into books with many online services such as blurb.com, shutterfly.com and snapfish.com.
Loose photos, photo albums, videos and scrapbooks are the second biggest culprit. These can also easily be converted to digital media, saving space and conserving the images for more than a lifetime. These can similarly be converted into photo books and voila once again, you have just condensed!
Souvenirs are another item of clutter that we often grapple with but here is a great idea and fun project you can do with your kids. Make a shadow box of your trip! You can add tickets, photos and souvenirs and once again you have lightened your load and more importantly, your time spent dusting.
Here is a wonderful shadow box of architectural items before a home renovation. Another great way to pay homage to a memory without creating sentimental clutter.
Books can take up a lot of space and be really difficult to move, but there is something special about the books from childhood and therefore it is important to selectively keep ones you think might be important to your own kids. One great idea for commemorating books that are sentimental but will likely never be read again is to create artwork with book jackets. You could create a series of shadow boxes or a triptych for your walls.
I am no where near this one yet but once the kids have left home what do you do with all the stuff they leave behind? To be fair, I am still dealing with things I left behind at my own parent’s house so I am certainly no authority on this one but here is one ingenious idea from AZCentral.com. Fill one appliance box (yes maybe that means actually upgrading an appliance whoo hoo!) with the trophies, ribbons, toys and such. It is likely that within a few months these items will not seem nearly as important. Eventually you will whittle it down to a few manageable items.
Tips From Mom of Ten
Because I am so green at this mommy gig, I decided to solicit the help of a seasoned mom friend. Libby Neas has reared ten children and has experienced dealing with sentimental clutter first hand. I asked Libby to share her top three tips:
Scan important documents and recycle the paper!
This is a great one. Libby’s advice is to create a ‘temporary’ and a ‘keep’ folder or bin for each family member. At the end of each week go through the temporary folder and scan anything that can not be dealt with on the spot and you consider ‘a keeper’. She also recommends a yearly purge of the box of ‘keepers’ especially for children’s artwork and school projects. Try to limit the ‘keepers’ to 10 per year.
For souvenirs and family heirlooms, if you really love the item – show it off!
If it is sitting in a box under the bed and you have not seen it in years, consider cataloging it and offering the item up to extended family members or donating to a good cause such as Good Will or Salvation Army.
This one is my favorite. If you are like me you just can not bear to throw away beautiful cards and letters. Libby pointed us to Simple Mom who has some wonderful ideas for making flip books, re-purposing cards and even giving letters back to original senders! I know I would love to read some of the letters I wrote so many years ago.
So many great ideas. What are your top tips for reducing sentimental clutter?
photo credit: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com
About Kristina Salin
Great pointers. We just went through my big girls room this weekend and purged a lot. I convinced them to put a bunch of the toys that they really don’t play with anymore into storage at least. Eventually they can take another look at that stuff and decide if it’s even worth keeping.
Sounds like you are on the right track. From what I learned, just being aware of the need to purge is the first step!
Great post – love the shadowbox!
I have to be totally honest…still have stuff tucked away that the kids have promised to come and get.
Can you read “SUCKER” written across my forehead:-)
Thanks Libby and thanks so much for your additions!
Love the tip, ‘if you love it show it off’! My son has a lot of artwork that I can’t part with(he is now 12) but I have them framed and put on the wall or table for everyone to see!
I also have a filing cabinet that has a lot of stuff in it that I need to go through and scan that way I can free up a lot of space!
Thanks for the post it’s hard but has to be done!
Great tips here. This is my favorite topic!
Curating and displaying these “sentimental items” adds character to your home and helps tell your life’s story.
Here’s a few more ideas:
Corralling your collections in mason jars, glass bowls, or cloches is a beautiful way to contain and limit your treasures.
Framing a treasured baby’s outfit or even just a few swatches of favorite clothing (on embroidery hoops or stretched canvases) is also a great way honor the memory and let go of the clutter.
More ideas at http://www.lifescollections.com.
Some more great tips Wendy! Thanks for that and for sharing your website as well. Some really wonderful ideas for cherished heirlooms and capturing family changes.