A hoarders dilemma - what "precious" mementos to keep and what to throw?

[undercoverlara]

I have 2 DDs (10 and 7 years), I am trying my hardest to declutter, but I struggle to part with their favourite books, toys, swimming certificates, birthday cards, paintings, creations, mountains of soft toys. I suppose lots of those things aren't truly precious, but every time I try to put a book in to a bag for charity I just remember sitting reading it to them as toddlers and find myself putting it back on the shelf!
Their bedrooms are jam packed with toys from earlier stages of their lives and school mementos.

Does anyone have any rules that helps declutter the children's rooms. I know I need to be a bit stricter.
Thanks Lara

Get rid of it all you'll feel loads better for it (maybe keep one or two bits if you must). Decluttering is so rewarding it'll make you feel great

one big IKEA storage box for each DC's crap sentimental things
once it's full, you need a one in, one out policy

one big box of mementos really is plenty

It's just stuff, the real memories are in your head.

Well I've kept the swimming certificates - nice to look back on and you might need them to prove dcs can swim a certain distance, possibly.

Photograph the best objects, funniest bits of writing etc and download them on to your computer. Our computer is always on and is in the hall so there is always a slide show on bringing happy memories.
I am about to buy a digital picture frame so I can have a slide show in another room.
Then chuck everything!

You could put cards, drawings, letters, swimming certificates etc in scrapbooks - much easier and neater to store.

The other things - books, toys, etc - I would bag/box up in order to give away. Put them aside for a week and any you feel desperately sad about you could retrieve - the rest can go! (If it helps, you could think of another little child falling upon them in a charity shop and adoring them!)

DS is 8, he has a normal ringbinder type folder with his certificates in and any special bits eg hand prints at various ages.

Take photos of books and toys they liked as kids, their pictures, creations and paintings, etc, then stick the pictures on one disc (and back up too), you can then clear the bulk but keep the memories.

I'd keep maybe 1 or 2 sentimental soft toys, but no more than that. If they have toys they play with regularly fair enough but a lot of the time they have stuff they won't even miss.

Just seen you mentioned birthday cards too - really you do not need to keep these! Recycle them.

Each of my DCs has what I half-jokingly called a "boasting book". It was just a standard ring binder. Any certificate, however mundane (and they usually were), was filed in there. It was fun to look back on over the years and some were actually useful when it came to writing personal statements for uni and other similar applications.

Don't ask me about what to do with 3D clutter though...!

Thank you very much for the advice, am going to take a deep breath and break the habit of a lifetime. Then enjoy the space and clarity.
Lara

You need to find someone with a younger girl who would wear/enjoy your dd's things. Then you wouldn't just be turfing stuff out, you would be putting it to good use and giving it a good home. I like seeing my friend's younger ds wearing my ds's old clothes.

you could take my mum's approach and keep it for 40 years for the next generation, who is now having a lot of fun with it - but I don't think I really recommend this!

photograph artworks that you really like, then bin. Recycle birthday cards.
Toddler books to the charity shop, perhaps keep ONE OR TWO. And do a ruthless soft toy cull - plenty of overseas charities love them if the UK ones turn their noses up. Stuffed animals really take over otherwise.

I have a small shoe box for dd (HER sized shoe box) with cards and anything special like hand prints or whatever, for each year. I plan to stop this when she is old enough to decide what she wants and keep them in one big storage box in the loft for when she is older/moving out or whatever and she can bin or keep anything. I think it is nice to show you were thoughtful and kept SOME bits. I have passed down some of my old books to her for example, so it might be nice to keep them too?