Handling sentimental clutter
We all have somethings that we are holding onto that serve no purpose other than to remind us of someone, something, or some important event. A few of these items may actually be worth keeping — so where do we draw the line on what to keep and what to shed?
One thing that has survived multiple moves in my life is a baseball I have from my days playing Little League. It is the ball I hit for my first home run.
This Fond du Lac Reporter article has some great tips on what one should do to detach themselves from sentimental clutter. From the article:
LeAnn Peterman, an organizational specialist from Fond du Lac, said it’s important to ask yourself why you’re holding on to an object.
“Questions you should ask are: do I or someone else have a relationship to the item? Is it useful? Do you or someone else need it? And do you have a place for it?” Peterman said. “Does owning it create good feelings or not?”
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In helping to make those hard decisions, Peterman recommends the following:
- Items that have a strong sentimental attachment should be organized in a manageable system — taking a picture of an item still retains the visual memory but not the actual bulk of the item.
- Pass along items to others that may have a more sentimental value to them such as cards, pictures or news clippings.
- Pictures that you cannot identify should be tossed or donated to a local historical society.
- Set your criteria and don’t do it alone. If you tend to hoard, invite a person opposite of yourself to help make sensible decisions, they said.
Erin has written on photographing sentimental items on a couple occasions that you may be interested in exploring. One for parents stuck with their kid’s left behind items, and one on photographing your mementos.
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What does it mean to ‘honor’ mementos?
We talk a great deal about “honoring” the mementos you chose to keep in your home. This exact word we picked up from Peter Walsh, but it’s a concept most everyone in the organization business has understood for years. In short, when we say that you should “honor” your mementos, we mean that if you’re going to the trouble of keeping something in your home, you should at least treat that item with respect. Being shoved in a messy closet, typically, is not honoring an object.
How you chose to honor something is a personal choice and full of seemingly endless possibilities. I thought that I would discuss one of my collections to give you an idea of how you could choose to honor something in your home. My example is concert posters.
When I was in journalism school working on my undergraduate degree, I was convinced I was going to be the next Cameron Crowe. I interviewed every band that came through town (Everclear, Jackopierce, mid-1990s groups) and every legend who set foot on campus (Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Patty Smith, Debbie Harry). When I wasn’t in class, I worked as a disc jockey for the local commercial station and had an internship with the company that booked all of the shows at the region’s concert amphitheater. In my mind, there was nothing standing between me and being the next Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone.
I was exactly like most people in their early twenties. I was trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to grow to become. I still love music, though, and it will always be a part of me. Plus, if I hadn’t gone through my Cameron Crowe-obsession stage in college, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
So, how do I respect those memories? I frame them. I put concert posters in ridiculously ornate frames and hang them in my hallway. They’re fun. They make me smile. And, most importantly, they’re treated with respect and honored in a way appropriate to their memory.
I don’t have concert posters from every show I’ve attended. I only have kept those that are the most important to me. The one in the photograph above is from a secret concert the Beastie Boys performed a number of years ago in DC. Bad weather delayed the band so they bought pizza for everyone who stuck around to hear them play. By the time they went on stage, only a hundred or so people were still at the venue. I saw the show with one of my closest friends and it felt like we were watching the band at a small house party. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I framed the poster from the show and hung it on my hallway wall in tribute to that night.
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