How to declutter letters, cards and photos?

[MyCatPrefersPeaches]

How do you declutter these? We are having a major declutter and these are categories I’m just really stuck on. I’m curious as to how other people approach them as I was raised by borderline hoarders, as was DH, and it feels almost sacrilegious to get rid of these - but we just don’t have the space to keep everything. All thoughts welcome! (“Bonfire” has been suggested….)

I try to keep at least one card from each person, and prioritise one with a nice note in it. I keep letters unless they contain things that shouldn't be read by someone coming across them. I keep photos unless they're out of focus, or of landscapes I've got loads of.
And I try to leave a post-it or something that explains who the person is.

Take photos of them on your phone so you can still look at them? Would that make the physical versions easier to dispose of?

Letters can be scanned in and shredded if needed (e.g mortgage documents or the like), photos can be in albums but only for special occasions and no duplicates. For cards, how often do you re read them? I keep ones from my DH and bin all others, I’ve never ever got them out to re read so I got rid of the stash.

Photos are on the phone and each year we add a few highlights to a physical photo album

letters you can photograph of they are important

cards - bin unless extra special in which case they can go into your one and only one per person special things show box

I threw out loads of photos recently. If I don’t know who they are, where it is, when it was then they go without question. Then if they aren’t really anything special, they’re repetitive or poor quality they go too. Straight in the recycling. I’d read the letters and bin unless there’s really something special about them and cards ditto. I don’t have any hesitation and I’ve never regretted it

Digitise anything really meaningful and stick it on an SD card or a USB stick.

I’d agree with if you don’t see it and think Ah remember that? It isn’t really that important. I’d say if be careful of digitalising things you like to hold and sift through if you’re that kind of a person, also remember you don’t have to get rid of everything!!

Thanks, some useful suggestions here. It’s become clear as I’ve gone through it all that a lot of stuff has been kept out of habit. I’ve already filled about eight boxes of paper for the recycling bin!

The letters are personal letters from when people wrote to each other so I am minded to keep the physical versions. There is some great advice on photos - I think having a high threshold for which photos to keep and ensuring they’re labelled is a good place to start. We were discussing digitising things last night, actually.

It’s frustrating because a fair amount of this stuff was inherited when MIL died. Some stuff can now be chucked as the estate is settled and the property is sold, but the more sentimental stuff is harder to make decisions about.

Do you want to keep them as a symbol of the past or because you sit and read through them?

Anything I want to keep I scan and then shred the originals. I recently read about Death Cleaning which has resonated with me!

I have just filled 9 bin bags with documents from my parents house which will be shredded - bank statements dating back 50 years etc. There are literally thousands of photographs (some are terrible, out of focus or overexposed) and haven’t been looked at for decades. They are going to the tip. The birthday cards from 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays - in the bin! I don't want them! If something has been in a cupboard untouched for 30 odd years then it isn't important. I couldn't bear for my children to be left with this kind of oppressive mess so I keep very little.

I’m quite ruthless and did a new clear out recently but I have realised that I need to go back through the photos I’ve kept and especially the vinyl records. Just because I know and like an artist, I don’t need to keep a random record. I’ve got my original 1973 copy of Hunky Dory with my name and the year on Dymo tape on the cover. The ELO compilation that I somehow acquired not long ago can go. I love that music, I can get it elsewhere

That is a really interesting question and one I was mulling over this week. I don’t generally sit and read through things, no. Unless I’m having a massive cull! So I guess there is something about symbolism in there. The whole process has certainly made me think hard about what we should be giving our limited space to.

I'd say get rid of anything that can be replaced (bank statements, manuals, etc).
I recently read through some letters from when I was a teenager amd it was a nice memory lane trip but I felt like that was the reminiscence I needed.
I keep a few meaningful cards with messages (like a graduation card from my belated grandma where she told me how proud she was) but not generic birthday cards or Christmas cards.
I decluttered unflattering photos (life is short!) Anything blurry, places I couldn't remember, people I'm not longer in touch with. Anything I wouldn't want people to see.

I'm in the process of death cleaning it's so freeing and so much clutter has gone.