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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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