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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Decluttering sentimental items - has anyone ever chucked the lot?

25 replies

MsChalloner · 03/03/2018 09:47

Have found so much helpful advice on this topic - and rest of my house is not perfect but I do try to keep clutter down (have given a lot away - passed on baby and toddler clothes and stuff/only keep what precious or kids refuse to part with etc). BUT... I cannot bring myself to throw away old cards and letters and they are clogging up space I don't have. Our attic is full of boxes of "sentimental items" I have kept and our spare room (soon to be required for guests) is full of all the stuff I have kept over the last few years. Has anyone ever chucked everything and not regretted it? Sorry - this is definitely a first world problem!!!! Thanks for any advice. Typing this I know what I would "suggest" to others - keep the very precious, photograph the big and unwieldly precious stuff and chuck it and all the rest.....has anyone else had this problem and what worked a treat? Also - I am beginning to do it for my kids - so wonder if having a memory box for them is nice for them or passing on a terrible habit. Thank you!!!
It is just I have a bad habit of holding on to these things.

OP posts:

drinkswineoutofamug · 03/03/2018 09:56

I have just thrown 2 bin bags of stuff I kept from the kids. School reports, etc. Kept only a few items. There was that much it broke the drawer under my bed 😳
Need to go into my loft and throw away my school stuff. I've chucked most of my nvq stuff, just kept the certificates.
The ymca came the other week and I had 3 boxes of stuff for them

SadieHH · 03/03/2018 10:01

A friend of mine left home under a bit of a cloud and in a temper took everything she owned to the dump and left with a small case of clothes. That was nearly 30 years ago and to this day she regrets that she has nothing from her childhood. Of course she’s had 30 years to cling onto new stuff...

HRTpatch · 03/03/2018 10:02

Yes.
I keep photos and school reports and thats it. And now the dcs are at unin they have their reports and anything else .
I hate clutter and stuff.

Chocrock · 03/03/2018 10:06

If you use it or look at it regularly keep it. If not bin it.

Bobbiepin · 03/03/2018 10:07

My DH winds me up that I'm notoriously bad for keeping cards. I have kept every single one of our engagement/wedding/new baby cards. I keep birthday cards and sort through every few years. I know its morbid but I like to hang on to the last birthday cards from relatives. My grandpa used to make birthday cards and I would be heartbroken to have thrown away the last one he made for me before he died.

Other stuff I'm not so fussed about. Got rid of old toys and school reports etc when my parents divorced. I still have my yearbooks and that's enough for me.

mumsypig14 · 03/03/2018 10:09

I scan a lot of stuff from school such as reports and certificates for trivial things (not qualifications).

I also scan a lot of drawings and school work and just keep a few originals (such as mothersday cards). Have reduced my paper clutter by 75% and its all on my Google drive sorted by year!

New photos I dont print but my scanner at work isn't good enough for my to throw away old pics. So I've arranged them in albums so at least they're stored well

In terms of items, I've just got rid. I even kept DSs Bumbo (hes now 8) and seeing that made me realise how ridiculous I was and gave everything like that to the charity shop or bin!

Original poster

MsChalloner · 03/03/2018 10:10

A friend lost everything in a house move where she had to bin all her "sentimental stuff" quickly as the new owners were coming to their house, the removers had gone and my friend had forgotten they had all her sentimental stuff in the attic. They had to clear the attic in an hour. I asked her what she had lost and she said she didn't know - and yet - she is the most "in the now" person I now and it makes me wonder if I am being foolish holding on to stuff. I have a green box for each child for their "official" clutter - school reports, health etc - it is the rest........I think I am feeling ready just to go for it. Have read Marie Kondo and also the death decluttering by Margaret Magnussen - so it is just making the leap.... Thanks for all the advice!

OP posts:

thecatstrousers · 03/03/2018 11:24

I piled it everything onto the dining room table and went through it all, with a bottle of wine to help. I did the Marie Kobdo 'does it spark joy' thing and it was surprising how many of the items actually made me feel quite sad, I binned/burned nearly all of it and now have a small box left of my things and 1 larger box for the children.

Minestheoneinthegreen · 03/03/2018 11:33

I haven't although I do whittle it down every so often.
One thing I am very mindful of is that when my mum died, other than a couple of school and ballet reports, a lock of hair and obviously photos, she'd kept nothing. And I was not remotely sad about that. The couple of bits were sweet and nice to look at. If I died soon, dd would be stuck with over 5000 photos, practically everything she ever brought home from school, tiny school uniforms, baby clothes, cuddly toys she loved.... she will not thank me and I doubt she will want the vast majority of it.

Apple23 · 03/03/2018 11:55

Get a good quality box for each child and keep a few bits - make your gauge things they'd probably want to show their own children.

Scan or photograph as much as you possibly can and only keep the originals if they are sentimentally or financially precious. They will only deteriorate over time. Most objects and paperwork are replaceable; only consider keeping the irreplaceable items.

My best tip is to think about whether you will need that item in the future, rather than whether it has been useful or decorative in the past.

RandomMess · 03/03/2018 12:06

I did decades of letters with close friends, child hood pen pal and so on. I realised I was never going to reread them even if those people died etc!

From childhood I have my teddy, doll, her clothes (all hand made), her pram. Certificates, couple of school reports, jewellery, jewellery box. Can't think of anything else! Made moving house easier I can tell you. I was very attached to my stuff but have let go!

Bluelady · 03/03/2018 14:33

I binned the lot when I moved a few years ago. Have never missed any of it. And I'm quite a sentimental person.

DontFundHate · 03/03/2018 15:09

Display and enjoy things you like

I made a card collage with wedding cards, baby cards etc, framed and hung it, something for our little ones to keep if they like. I personally wouldn't like a memory box from childhood, I only really like photo albums

Personally I binned the rest. Looked at it all one by one and thanked it, but still binned it, a few years ago, with no regrets. Kondo explained that it was horrible for the items to be neglected in a box somewhere, so either do something with it or get rid of it

WellTidy · 03/03/2018 15:15

Years ago (I am now 42), I told my mum to throw all of my old stuff that she had kept - school books, reports, letters from the headteacher about achievements etc. So she did. But now that I have DC if my own, and they are getting reports, binging home their exercise books etc, I am sorry that I don't have mine to look back on to find similarities, differences etc. So for this reason I don't want to throw out my DC's reports and books and crafts etc.

Myownwendyhouse · 03/03/2018 20:55

I have an old Teddy but nothing else. My mum would never have kept anything like that. I am Not a hoarder. I don't keep 'stuff' I have empty drawers in my house. But.i have a box in my sons room that I have kept stuff of his over the last 14 years. Not everything. His drawings, certificates etc are put into a scrapbook. His first outfit. Etc. I will continue to keep stuff. But not everything. I can't bear clutter.mades it .makes my Brain hurt

melj1213 · 04/03/2018 00:10

I have one plastic tote box for me and one for DD that are our memory boxes. I put anything I want to keep in there but only things that fit in the box can stay. Even with a lot of childhood stuff my box is not full, but if it was and I had something want to keep I would have to go through it and reassess what was essential to keep and what I was ready to part with to decide what was "worthy" of the space.

Every so often I break the box out and look through it. If I come across something that I no longer have strong attachment to then I have no guilt over getting rid of it as I see it as freeing up the room for something I truly cherish to be saved rather than getting rid of something I used to think was worth keeping.

Aria2015 · 04/03/2018 00:17

I've put my main keep sakes in a scrap book and everything else I've binned including my wedding cards (I'm still happily married btw). My rule now is that for everything I want to keep I think 'what would my family do with this if I died?' And if the answer is 'chuck it out' then I chuck it out! By keeping things to one scrap book, I like to think my family would keep that as it's just one item and holds so many special memories, also I like to have it to look at from time to time. It was hard but I have no regrets and I have more room!

RunRabbitRunRabbit · 04/03/2018 00:25

My dad gave me a tiny box of things he had kept when he cleared out the family home. Each item had a story. Some were photos of me with a treasured item (but he hadn't kept the item).

The fact that it was a carefully curated set of things gave them much greater meaning.

If he'd handed me a pile of my primary school books, reports and birthday cards it would have meant nothing. Who gives a toss about any of those?

TwentySmackeroos · 04/03/2018 00:31

I think that at different times of your life you can get rid of things. Get rid of what you can for now; keep the rest. In a few years, you might be ready to discard replace more. I've never regretted what I've discarded (except a biker jacket that I have no memory of giving away, and still hunt for hopefully every once in a while), but if there is something I hesitate over, I keep it for another day.

MrsDilber · 04/03/2018 01:10

I keep really special things in one box each under our bed. First baby grow, christening robes, first shoes, a few paintings. But I am brutal in chucking stuff out, but I always take a photo of it first and store it in the computer.

Original poster

MsChalloner · 05/03/2018 10:05

This is all brilliant - thank you. Am at home today and am just going to bite the bullet.

OP posts:

drinkswineoutofamug · 05/03/2018 10:20

I'm still tackling the shed of 'useful things'
Anyone for broken kites ?
Hula hoops?
2 broken bikes?

LittleWingSoul · 06/03/2018 12:59

I had stacks and stacks of teenage years photos - most of them made me feel quite miserable to look at so they got binned and managed to get it all down to one tiny baby shoe box (the clarks first walkers sized one!) I'm not going to suddenly feel sentimental or want to relive a time of my life which was mostly quite depressing!

Reading this thread I think I can probably go through my box marked 'mummy's special things' box as I reckon I could bin a lot of that.

JumpingFrogs · 06/03/2018 22:36

When my kids were little I was quite obsessive about saving all their baby teeth after the tooth fairy had visited. Then my parents moved from my childhood home and my mum gave me a box of school reports etc and ALL of my baby teeth! I really did NOT want them and it made me think WTF am I saving MY kid's teeth for.. ..so I went home and binned the lot!

Namethecat · 06/03/2018 22:42

I have ' inherited ' a fair bit of stuff from my parents house when it was cleared including my baby teeth in a matchbox. I'm in my 50s !

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