Decluttering- Do you keep these items and if so where

[LuckyLopez]

I'm having a whole house declutter and it's going quite well. Downstairs is done and now I'm tackling bedrooms. This means more sentimental items!

Do you keep, and if so where...

Greeting cards? From anyone? Just dh and dc? You parents? Special birthdays?

School books? I'm not keen but will I miss them. I don't miss my own but Dcs work might be different?

Old passport? They're cute to look at but not mine- how can they be disposed of?

I might have more as I come across them!

The whole point of decluttering is that you get rid of Clutter. You should be ruthless and chuck it away.

If you have to, put together a small box of 'treasures' to go in the attic, but for the rest of it just chuck the damn stuff out!

Well the good news is- our attic is empty - I refuse to put anything up there because I know I'll never see it again!

These things currently live in a plastic box on top of each person's wardrobe. I'm just not sure if I'm keeping them out of sentiment or habit. Just wondered what everyone else does.

I keep handmade cards from the DCs and the ones that we received when they were born but that is all.

School books yes, DS has SNs and DD has suspected dyslexia so I do keep them as records, but not for nostalgia's sake.

Old passports - I think the DCs are in their treasure boxes. Don't keep mine.

I have made a massive cull of paperwork in the last few years, I used to keep absolutely everything. I like keeping stuff, but space is at a premium.

The DCs have one box file each of bits from pre-school age, one each of bits from primary school age (also I make them a book every school year of actual school stuff, photos, letters, certificates etc in those A4 books with plastic slip in sleeves, they love those). They also have a treasure box each where they keep postcards, tickets, medals etc. A small amount of artwork gets kept long term in the box files/school folders, and I take photos before I get rid of things they've made or bigger paintings.

I am in the process of decluttering and cleaning up my house. Have far too much crap and lots of it will be exiting our house throughout 2015. I have never kept anything you have mentioned above though.

Greetings cards - these don't stay longer than a week. Husband tends to stash some of them, but I honestly believe that once first seen, they've served their purpose.

Passports - bin. Husband has his first one, with all kinds of interesting stamps in it, but they don't do that so much these days (I tend to only travel within EU), so they're usually pretty dull.

School books - certainly not all of them. Max one per year for a favourite subject, or scan/photograph the most interesting/cute/funny piece of work from each. Don't forget to name the image files so you know what they are without having to open them (eg: LukeMaths2012.jpg, or ClaireScienceY4.gif).

PS: congrats on the attic!

old passports; perhaps keep pages with visas, and the photo page for a laugh, but shred everything else.

school books - bin. still trying to get my mother to get rid of mine

greeting cards - hard to do given the effort represented, but bin after display for a week or two. I've kept our wedding cards but that's it.

I have kept wedding cards, 1st birthday cards and made ones from the DCs, some of the nicest mother's day cards, and I always hang on to cards for a year because we went through a spate of friends dying so now I hang on to their last xmas cards.

I have one box full of DCs schoolwork, they have their own boxes but DS is finding it hard to sort his out. I may have to do it for him as his cupboard is rather full. Old passports yes, to laugh at the photos.

My mission this winter is to sort all the photos taken before digital camera took over, send copies to everyone on them and bin the original, because I have thousands. The best ones will be put in albums. I started it two weeks ago and it is taking soooooooo long.