Where do you keep all your 'sentimental' stuff?

[Luckyelephant1]

I have been doing a huge declutter of the house and have been really ruthless with most things, so pretty much everything now has a place. Clothes, toys, kitchen, you name it. To be fair there wasn't actually much excess stuff, it's just that I was using storage poorly!

However, I am struggling to find places to keep these sorts of things: physical photo albums, memory box type stuff for kids/wedding, scrapbooks of holidays etc.

It's the kind of stuff that I don't want to shove in the loft and forget about for years. I'd like them to be easy to access if we have people over and decide to go on a trip down memory lane. But then again it's not the kind of stuff you look at more than once in a blue moon so no point having them taking up space in areas where we could do with the storage space.

Eventually (like in 2-3 years time) we are going to do a house reno and hopefully have an office space of some sort so we can put it all in there but at the moment everything is just in a couple of big plastic storage boxes and plonked in the conservatory taking up space. I suppose for now the loft would make more sense temporarily, but I'm looking for other ideas.

Interested to know where you all keep this kind of paraphernalia, especially if storage space is limited?

It used to be in plastic boxes in the loft but i chucked out what noone wanted eg baby pics to the DC in pic. As such, no sentimental storage now required. I know, I'm hard hearted!

I KNEW someone would say they don't have any of this stuff 😂 my DC are still under 5 so a long way off from being given it to keep! Thanks though, I'm gonna guess boxes in the loft will be the most common answer.

I have a small cupboard at the top of the stairs, not really useful so the albums go on there. I have kids special things in boxes in their wardrobes, trying to keep it to one of those big plastic storage totes each <hard>. And art work in a box under my bed. I have to go through everything this year and condense it.

Of the examples you gave I only have photos which are in albums on a shelf in the living room.
I just haven’t really kept an abundance of ‘stuff’!

We put some quite high shelves up in a bedroom and keep photo albums on them. Doesn't need floorspace like a bookcase does, but not too difficult to access when we want to.
I had cardboard box for each of the dc (photocopier paper box, so A4 size with a lid) for bits and bobs to keep, and kept them on top of wardrobes.

Oh, the kids all have their own scrapbooks of things like certificates from school and the letters they wrote us and we wrote them on trips etc, they were responsible for sticking stuff in from the age of about 7/8 and they are in their own bedrooms on their bookshelves but they are just one A4 scrapbook each so hardly taking up much room.

Oh yes kids artwork is another one, I only have one kid at nursery atm but already have a box going of her 'artwork'. It's pointless keeping this isn't it...

Honestly I am a minimalist when it comes to most things but when it comes to all this 'memories' stuff I seem to lose my head a bit in fear of regretting throwing something away that I later wish I'd kept. I still remember being absolutely gutted when my mum gave away some of my favourite books as a child without asking and I think that fear has stuck with me!

Take photos of the artwork!
I mean, what is your kid going to do aged 24 with a box of preschool drawings? They might look at them once and go ‘ahhhh’ and then what?
my mum binned several binbags of my teddies when I was younger but I just think ‘well what would I do with them now anyway?!’.
why are you keeping it? As in, what is the purpose (I’m not being sarcy!), is it for your benefit or theirs?

For the artwork I would get an A2 size artists portfolio. After a week or 2 of having their creation on display decide if it's one to bin or one to keep. When the portfolio get's a bit too full go through it all, take pictures of everything and bin the pieces you don't still love and feel really sentimental about. Then by the time they're adults you have a few really special creations from through the years and a memory stick of pics of previous creations, and no more clutter than you had to start with.

That's an awesome idea, thank you.

You're welcome! They fit well under beds too, even quite low slung ones, so they're not taking up too much room in the house. Once or twice a year you can get them out and go through them as a family, just for a 'trip down memory lane' rather than to bin things. It's a nice activity on a rainy day.

I have two easily accessible things to store this sort of stuff in (and I'm a lot better than I used to be at hoarding the minutiae!). One is a storage footstool in the sitting room (super comfy to slob out with) and one is a rattan storage stool by the door in the utility (handy for sitting and putting outdoor shoes on). Things live in albums, scrapbooks and folders.

Make space on a bookcase for albums and scrapbooks.
Memory boxes etc put on top of a bookcase or in the loft.
Mine is 12 now but her photo albums are in my bookcase. Other sentimental stuff like paintings and drawings are in a box in the loft now after being displayed for years.
If your kids are so young it's probably a bit early to worry about this.
My house is like Monica from Friends took over, everything has its place. I really enjoyed having all of her stuff displayed all through the years though. I still have some drawings up in my bedroom and kitchen.

Storage footstools/benches are a really good shout, thanks. In fact I remember my parents had a (very 70s style) sofa with storage under the seat cushions and that's where all the photo albums were kept. So a similar concept.