Sentimental clutter and memorabilia - Part 3 - the final round up!

This is my final round up of sentimental decluttering and organising, dealing with a couple of categories which can be tricky.

Children's artwork and creations

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Children are little clutterbugs - and I don't mean that in a bad way! Even a child who is not that keen on drawing and crafting will bring piles of artwork and school work home. When my children were little, I dealt with this in a very slapdash way, randomly picking 'favourites' to keep, and putting other things on the wall in their rooms or on the fridge. I know better now! If I'd have thought about it, I would have kept one year's worth of art and work for each child, and at the end of the year picked out 3 or 4 items to keep, with the help of the child, of course. It would have been far more manageable! I know in
the attic there are several boxes of school papers and art to deal with.
I will be doing an attic declutter post in the future!

Another thing that occurred to me, when helping my younger son to sort out his bedroom, is that there will be things your child wants to keep, and things that you want to keep, and they'll probably be different! I now have in my memory box a couple of his drawings and pieces of written work that I wanted, but that he wasn't interested in keeping. I don't think many children would like to reach adulthood and have their mother give them every piece of art, craft project and school book they had ever owned! Be realistic about what you have room to keep, and why you are keeping it - a few pieces that make you smile are better than an overwhelming attic crammed full. Someone will have to deal with this stuff when you're no longer here.

Another alternative, particularly good for those towering creations made from cereal boxes and barely held together with glue, is to take a photo and then dispose of the object. A friend of mine used to use her children's paintings, cut up, to make their party invitations, thank you cards and as presents for doting relatives. I also found these rather pricey frames for children's artwork. I think simple, cheap frames from somewhere like Ikea or any large supermarket would serve the same purpose.

Greetings cards

I don't keep them. They are displayed for a week or so after the event (longer for Christmas cards) and then they are recycled. Occasionally I will keep a card with a special message written in it, but other than that, out they go. I'm aware, though, that many people keep all the cards they are sent. All. The Cards. That's a lot of cards, in the case of one of my relatives who is in her eighties. Realistically, how often is she able to look through them all? And does she remember who the sender was (I'm not casting aspersions at her memory - I recently found a leaving card from a job I'd had in my twenties - I didn't remember 90% of the people who'd signed it!). It seems the issue of what to do with greetings cards divides lots of bloggers - Colleen of 365 Less Things is against keeping them, here, and Jen keeps and stores them here at IHeart Organizing. Whatever you decide, you need to have the room. And, just my opinion, but why store something if you never, ever look at at it again?

I'd love to know what you think about keeping cards and children's artwork.

Happy decluttering!

Lemons x

Sentimental clutter and memorabilia - Part 2

I said in my last post that I would be dealing with my own memorabilia - and here is my current memory box. During my general decluttering, I unearthed objects which should be kept here, rather than hidden away in my underwear drawer or my jewellery box or other random places.

The 'box' itself isn't that big, and although I love it's basket-y gorgeousness (I'm a sucker for a nice basket), I don't think it's ideal material for a box which is going to be storing things for any length of time as the dust can get in. It also fastens with fiddly little leather straps and buckles.

I would have loved to have bought a brand spanking new box (I love the largest size of these boxes) but I have unused boxes around the place which it would be more sensible to use.

I unearthed this box from the shelf at the top of my younger son's wardrobe - no idea what it was doing there, and it had nothing in it. Now, I don't really like pink. Or flowery things. But obviously some sort of brainstorm caused me to buy this (from Lakeland, a long, long time ago, if I recall) and so I should use it!

I spent a happy afternoon reading and sorting through the things I'm keeping - an assortment of newspaper clippings, birthday and mother's day cards made by my children, a couple of little drawings they did for me, medals from some charity runs I've done and a few love letters. I didn't get rid of any of it, and that's ok. There's room for growth in the new box and I will look through it all again regularly to assess if I still want to keep it all.

The box lives on the top shelf of my wardrobe, and it's easily accessible.

As I discovered when I went through my photos, this sort of decluttering can be very emotional - these things are kept precisely because they evoke some sort of emotion - even if it's sad or bittersweet. I would say that it's probably best not to keep things that make you feel angry or remind you of  very distressing times of your life.


I'm pleased to have finished this little piece of organising - it feels so much better to know everything is kept in one place now!

Enjoy sorting through your own memories.

Happy decluttering!

Lemons xx