Uncluttering a London museum
The University College London’s museums are purging most of their 250,000 items in their collection. They plan to donate a good portion of it to other museums, but they might also trash the objects not worth keeping.
To decide which objects to keep and which objects to purge, the museum is asking the public to weigh in on the process.
From a Time magazine article about the purge:
Consider the boring old picnic basket known as the “Agatha Christie basket,” which contains fragments of pottery of unknown origins. If it had belonged to the author, as its nickname would suggest, it would undoubtedly be a keeper; however, it turns out it belonged to her second husband’s second wife, and the university has no idea under what circumstances it was donated. Or what about a giant rhinoceros skull? Is that worth keeping? How about the samples of earth dug up from the English Channel, pre-Chunnel? Hundreds of beautiful hand-drawn lecture slides made by the scientist Sir Ambrose Fleming, inventor of the diode? Or the slides of microscopic fossils, which don’t seem to take up much space until you consider there’s a quarter million of them in storage?
Last month, the university put these items and many more together as part of an exhibition called Disposal? Visitors were asked which artifacts they’d pitch, and, more vitally, for what reasons. The collections reviewers are now poring through hundreds of visitor feedback forms to learn how the public would go about thinning the university’s collections. Armed with that information, they’ll soon start the lengthy process of deciding what will stay or go. (The Agatha Christie basket should get a reprieve — officials admit they’ve grown quite fond of it.)
Applying a similar process to items in your home and office would be a fun way to decide what to keep and what to purge. Throw a small party, display the items in question, set out response cards and pens, and let your friends tell you what they really think of your stuff. Uncluttering doesn’t have to be boring — keep it fun and follow the lead of UCL’s museums.
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Posted by Erin on Nov 16, 2009 |
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28 comments posted
Posted by Anita - 11/16/2009
Interesting article. Wouldn’t apply the process to my home, though.
Museum collections are for public viewing and enjoyment as well as safekeeping of valuable items, so getting public weigh-in on them makes sense. Applying this to your home seems a little too self-centred and a bit too much like airing your dirty laundry in public.
That being said, I have had one or two friends help me get rid of stuff (1) when I moved and needed to purge a lot of things, and (2) when I decided my wardrobe needed a tougher purge than I was willing to do. I’m for getting one or two very close friends to help, but a party with response cards and items on display?! That’s just cold. Your home is not a museum.
Posted by Louise - 11/16/2009
I would *love* to go to a party where the guests got to vote go/stay on all the stuff! In order to get ready for the party, the host would have to make some decisions beforehand on what items were definitely “keepers” and not up for vote. Presumably they wouldn’t be that emotionally attached to everything else. Who knows? Maybe items in the “get rid of it” pile would end up going home with guests who wanted them and would give them new life.
The host would have to have rather thick skin, but I can see it being a fun event with good friends.
Posted by Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome - 11/16/2009
What a great idea! I used to suggest a round-robin of organizing like a progressive Xmas decorating party, where a small group of neighbours/friends go from house to house with a bottle of wine and tackle closets with laughter and mini-fashion shows.
Posted by Lose That Girl - 11/16/2009
Interesting! It’s pretty cool that the London museum would open up their clutter to the masses for their opinions — and to make a collection for people to see, even better.
I’m not sure I’d want a bunch of people over to say yay/nay to my clutter staying/going. Doesn’t it muddy the waters too much, having others in for their five cents?
Posted by Sky - 11/16/2009
Sounds like fun!
Anita: How do you know what antiquities the rest of us own?
Posted by Anita - 11/16/2009
@Sky — I don’t claim to know what museum-worthy pieces you might own. However, even owning them would not turn your home into a museum, since they would make up a private collection. Is your home open for public viewing?
Also: I would assume these would be pieces you’ve expended quite a bit of energy choosing and collecting, and I very much doubt you’d want public input on what to keep/toss from your private collection.
Finally, I’m fairly sure the suggestion to hold an uncluttering party was aimed at purging more pedestrian items, rather than antiquities or museum pieces.
Posted by Christy Z. - 11/16/2009
Agatha Christie’s ex-husband’s second’s wife’s pottery fragments are worth keeping? Really?
If the museum doesn’t keep items of value and meaning, there is no room for the truly important things. Same philosophy we should be using in our homes and lives anyway.
Posted by Gina - 11/16/2009
My only response to this is fear over what the museum will decide to purge. I get the desire to get rid of the inconsequential (and I’d keep those hand-drawn slides over Agatha Christie’s basket in a heartbeat). It just makes me nervous what treasure they might decide is inconsequential.
At least they are seeking public opinion. Perhaps somewhere in there they’ll make good decisions.
I don’t see museums in the same vein as our own lives and homes — they are truly a place to keep a record of history. So where I wouldn’t be sentimental in my own home, I’d be more sentimental in a museum.
That said — there’d be NO WAY I’d allow other people to come into my home and opinionate on what I should keep and toss. Firstly, I should be able to handle that sort of decision-making on my own.
Secondly, it’s nobody’s place to tell me what they think of my possessions — they can keep it to themselves. Nobody else has any business influencing me as to what is valuable to me or not.
The only exception to that is if it’s a family member who might prefer to keep the item themselves.
Posted by Mrs. K. - 11/16/2009
Some Dutch museums sell objects on Ebay. These are objects which do not fit in the collection anymore.
http://stores.shop.ebay.nl/mus.....QQ_armrsZ1
Posted by Kalani - 11/16/2009
For me, part of what makes the purging process possible is the knowledge that places exist where everything is kept permanently. I really like the concept of some kind of central treasure trove of our collective past. Museums and archive collections represent this for me– even if I don’t particularly care about an item, a part of me believes it should still exist in someone else’s collection. I know that this is not the way the real world works, and that rhino skulls and pieces of pottery do end up thrown out and disintegrating. But it’s sad, somehow, that these institutions inevitably have to go through the purging process as well.
A similar party would work for some people in some situations, such as an older couple inviting their descendants to help pare down their belongings before moving to a smaller home, and then only in the most understanding of families. Or a couple who has traveled extensively and have a beautiful home teeming with really beautiful artifacts from around the globe– this too becomes clutter when there’s no more room in the house and many journeys still to be made. But it wouldn’t work for every household and many of us don’t need input to get over the emotional hurdle of throwing out old costumes or unused office supplies.
Posted by dtj - 11/16/2009
Sounds like a great idea for a website!
Kind of a clutter version of the amihotornot meme. Denizens of the net get to play Roman Emperor on your crap.
Posted by Ryan - 11/16/2009
Some of this stuff – like slides and lecture notes can be digitized. Yes it takes some time, but you can save it and not take up more space than a hard drive.
Posted by Mletta - 11/16/2009
The thought of the “general public” weighing in on what a museum should keep is appalling to me. The only thing more upsetting: Having friends and family “vote” on what I should keep in my “collections.”
It’s one thing if you’re an expert in the area of the subject matter of the items being considered for tossing. But the general public?
Which of course will include people with all kinds of personal and professional agendas about the items.
Ugh. Totally turns me off and if I were a curator who’d worked for years to preserve stuff, I’d be apoplectic (SP?)
What qualifies the man on the street to say what is valuable in a museum? Sorry, but the average person isn’t even well-educated these days about literature or history to have an inkling of what might be of value and why. (It’s like asking people who’ve never been in an art museum to decide what The Met should keep!)
And even close friends and family (who don’t live with me) don’t get to tell me what’s of value and worth keeping. Nor do I get to tell them!
It’s bad enough when we are suddenly seriously ill, or incapacitated and can no longer make decisions, that people do this with our stuff. And it’s generally pretty horrible when people do it to their parents and elderly relatives when they are forced to move out of a home/apt to a nursing home or ALF.
now we’re doing it with museum stuff.
Shudder. Shudder. Shudder.
PS: Have you ever done a column on de-cluttering of people’s stuff when they have little to no say in it?
Cause that’s something that should be addressed.
When our mother finally moved from her apartment to Assisted Living, I made very sure that she was given choices and consulted on the disposition of things (we were lucky in that she was of sound mind)because I understood how traumatic it was for many reasons.
I have, however, seen families where people totally bulldoze the relatives and just toss, take and sell off stuff with no regard to the person’s feelings, etc. It’s thoughtless and cruel and actual abuse.
Yea, it can be tough negotiating with a relative and getting them to accept, but NO ONE should have their stuff treated without respect (we’re NOT talking here about hoarders and people whose homes are safety hazards, etc. That’s a different story.)
FYI: If you own things that you want passed on or otherwise have a clear idea of what you want done with them, make sure they are in a will!
That applies to all of us regular folks and not just those with money and big $ stuff. I’ve seen families end up not speaking because people either did not leave instructions or they were ignored. Sentimental value is something you can never underestimate.
Posted by Gina - 11/16/2009
Bravo Mletta! Exactly right!
Posted by Sooz - 11/16/2009
I completely agree with Mletta!
As to “throw a party and let your friends tell you what they really think of your stuff” — are you kidding? To me that is a truly GHASTLY idea. And you think one could “keep it fun”??
It sounds like the concept for a bad reality show, one where the end result would be to purge oneself of some “friends”!
Frankly, I don’t care one iota what my friends (or any other visitors to my home) think of my stuff.
Posted by Erin Doland - 11/16/2009
@Mletta and Sooz — I think you’re missing the point of the items on display for your friends to choose. I’m imagining having five or 10 items, and all of them being entertaining objects. A pair of Birkenstocks from the early 1990s that you wore to see Pearl Jam in for the first time. A pin that you wore on your favorite jacket for years of the symbol Prince changed his name to when he was upset about his record contract. The first mixtape your boyfriend made for you in the eighth grade — full of Phil Collins and Air Supply songs. These are at least the objects I would use!
It’s important to be able to laugh at the clutter in our lives. Obviously, this suggestion would be atrocious for someone downsizing and going in to a nursing home. However, I don’t think my suggestion in the post indicated doing something like this in that situation.
Posted by Mletta - 11/16/2009
Erin
Your note explains what wasn’t clear in the post. It wasn’t clear that you viewed this as a form of entertainment.
However, I still feel it’s too much like an episode of American Idol…with voting and such. And I still absolutely hate it for a museum.
The bit with your friends might be fun for some folks, but really if it’s only a few items, just make the decision to keep or toss–lots of time to decide the fate of a few items, really. If it’s an excuse to have a gathering, well, that’s a whole other thing.
Let me say that since a lot of stuff is often retained for sentimental value, having your friends vote could actually be not so much fun. You might find out some things about them in the process, and their feelings about you, that you really don’t want to know.
It’s like they say: Never ask a question unless you’re prepared for the answer.
Erin writes:
It’s important to be able to laugh at the clutter in our lives.
Hmm. Well, I think it’s important to keep perspective about it. I don’t need to laugh when I’m tossing, although I have had to laugh, when I looked back at what was once important. Some things made me laugh, but honestly, a lot of decluttering is painful for many reasons.
Love your blog and your ideas but I’m agreeing to disagree on these bits.
Thanks, M
Posted by Sometimez - 11/16/2009
My take is that the museum is requesting opinions from visitors, not that the visitors are making the actual decisions. Curators’ training and focus might cause them to overlook possibilities that could occur to some of the (tsk) Great Unwashed.
I volunteered at a history museum which was trying to sort through multiples of some items. The museum had served as an attic in the past, accepting everything offered, but was developing guidelines for what donations it would and would not agree to take in the future, according to how the things aligned with the museum’s mission.
Posted by Sky - 11/16/2009
Erin, I completely agree with you. Uncluttering can be fun and is so freeing. I like my friends and families opinions and of course, it is always my final decision what to do with my stuff. We would laugh our heads off having a party with items in question and response cards. A bottle of wine would make it even more fun!
And, it’s wonderful for a museum to ask for the visitor’s opinion. It’s nice to know the public opinion is appreciated.
Lighten up folks!
Posted by Elizabeth - 11/16/2009
I got the impression that the museum was taking opinions on items that were already ‘on the chopping block’ more for the fun of it and to draw attention to this task of purging than to really decide what is going. I think that’s acceptable. After all, even museums need to pick and choose. They could even cite the reasons the item is going to be purged (duplicate, poor condition, lack of significance…etc).
As to what they should do with it all. They should have an auction of the purged stuff to benefit the museum! Sounds like that basket isn’t of any cultural significance (though it probably has its own fan club now), but hey, it is a basket. If it is in good shape, someone buy it for a couple of bucks and use it to gather fruit. The rhino skull, (are they getting rid of it because they have multiples? How funny that would be!) maybe not so useful, but could be an interesting decorative piece that someone could enjoy in their home. Better than it sitting in storage for all eternity.
Posted by Louise - 11/17/2009
I am one of the people who thought an American Decluttering Idol Party would be fun…for me. But then again, I am so detached from my stuff that I was able to gleefully sell 95% of it and move full-time into a 300 square foot RV.
It fascinates me that some people responded so viscerally to the idea that they actually shuddered. We’re all in a different place with our decluttering, and this is another example of why it can be so difficult because it can be so emotional.
Interesting!
Posted by Rebecca - 11/17/2009
I think this is pretty neat. I would also want someone to tell me if they would like a particular item or could imagine a good home for it, though I recognize this might taint the process (”no, no, don’t keep that, but I’ll take it off your hands…”).
I do agree with the poster (Mletta?) to the extent she noted that the purging process is made bearable by the knowledge that the stuff you let go of actually goes somewhere. I mean, it was useful and/or beautiful to you in some capacity at some time, and our landfills are crazy-full, so my inner hippie really likes a solution where the stuff I don’t keep goes to someone somewhere (not the rubbish bin). My friends and I do this with a clothing swap at least once per year; their frank opinions are a big part of how I determine whether to keep items I’m on the fence about.
Having said that, I will never, ever get rid of my Birkenstocks. But I’d “display” the really adorable Pooh bear my college boyfriend bought for me and a large number of lovely Christmas ornaments that don’t fit with our approach to decorating the tree. (We buy one ornament per year to commemorate something significant to us, rendering a lot of other ornaments pretty but pretty useless, unless we display them around the house. But we can only use so many in that capacity.)
Posted by JC - 11/17/2009
In doing this, the host would have to be most careful about assuring that the items to be judged are NOT items given the host by the attendees. One can imagine the interesting conversations/confrontations and immense amount of resulting offense.
Posted by Mary C. - 11/17/2009
What an interesting article! Thanks!
Posted by Rebecca - 11/17/2009
The state museum nearby has regular sales of props and other bits of exhibits for the purpose of raising funds. I think it’s silly to expect museums to hold on to everything forever. I can assure you that archives have a destroy and shred schedule as well. The public likes to assume “forever” with no respect as to actual value or storage space considerations.
Posted by Kaye - 11/17/2009
I’ll beg off the party idea (it’s something I’d never do, unless maybe every at the party was participating), but I do think it’s a great idea for the museum. How interesting to see what’s in the basement and behind the scenes!
I’m hoping instead of just tossing the old unwanted stuff, though, they would think to sell or auction it on eBay. I’m sure people would buy those fossil slides for $5 each…. that’s over a million dollars in return. The basket, though, I would say should go in the junk pile!
Posted by Gina - 11/19/2009
Well — I wouldn’t keep birkenstocks BECAUSE I’d seen Pearl Jam in them. I’d keep them if I still wore them. Period.
Shoes are shoes are shoes — do you really need to have a friend tell you it’s ok to throw them out?
Or are you saying you’d display 5 items and let your friends pick out one of them to get rid of? Really? If you’re that detached to the fate of them, throw them all away and go do something more interesting with your time.
Posted by Erin Doland - 11/19/2009
@Gina — I don’t own Birkenstocks, nor have I ever seen Pearl Jam live. It was just a made-up example.
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