memories box or simular, anyone do this?

[northernjess]

Just wondering if anyone keeps bits and pieces for their little ones for the future and how you do it? I want a memory box but have no idea if such a thing exists or do I have to turn on my very bad DIY crafty type skills?
At the moment everything (b'day cards, tickets, drawings) are in a big shoe box!
Am I just a silly hoarder?

Hi Jess

I have a 'kind of' memory box, in that I have a large cardboard board that I put the odd thing in. I don't keep every birthday, Christmas card etc as over the years you'd be snowed under!! I keep a special painting here and there, first pair of shoes etc. I throw ALOT out and at first it seems heartless, but you really do need to as they literally bring home thousands of pictures, paintings etc over the years!

It's a lovely thing to do, and when I look back at things like their baby books I'm really glad I did it!

I am using DS1's baby keepsake box which has all the cards from when he was born, his hospital tag thing, first haircut, special cards from first and second bdays, candle from first birthday cake, few bits of his "artwork" etc. Am doing same now for DTs as well.

We have these ones which are lovely, made of wood and you can put a pic and foot/handprint thing in the front. However any old box would do really as long as things are kept safe and dampfree etc.

I bought 2 very large gift boxes froma card shop. 1 for dd 1 for ds
Each contains hat and babygrow they came home form hospital in, wrist bands. First proper outfit they wore. My favourite item of clothing from the first year. A photo album with a photo a week from their first year.
Baby book, with milestones written in. Baby congratulations cards and all birthday cards from us.
Now also have in them first shoes.

I take photos of special pieces of artwork and make sure I have at least one photo a month of each of them. these photos are stored on a dongle kept in the boxes.

I'm sure I will add lots of other bits over the years.

I am all for memory boxes as I lost my mother when I was young and Dad cannot remember anything.

I have a cardboard box that contains baby bits, first shoes, baby book, congratulations cards and first birthday cards. Like tellyaddict, I keep a few special bits from each year, and any certificates, and each year, on ds's birthday I write him a letter telling him about all the milestones of the year, how I felt (like on his first day at school). I put these in the box, and will give them to him when he's 18...at which point I'm sure he will explode with embarrassment!

I just kept a biggish box that gifts for each baby came in iyswim.

4yo ds's box is bursting at the seams, I am hopeless and keep everything vagely senimental, I have his scan pics, umbilical cord (I know ewwwwwwww), his first toothbrush, his stiches in a little pot after he had an accident, all his birthday cards, ditto tags, first mittens/socks/outfit and god knows what else, but I love getting it out to look at, and now he does too.

I have one of these for both my DDs - just large white cardboard storage boxes from ikea, nothing fancy.

I've got scan pics, hospsital tags (although not for DD2 as she was homebirth), cards, first cardies (knitted by me or granny), first shoes and newspapers from the day they were born (think those might be most interesting for me though - I'm a journalist) and assorted other bits and bobs. I'm limiting what I keep to what fits in the box.

Don't know if they'll be interested when they get older, but I think if nothing else I will enjoy a little walk down amnesia lane. My mother, lovely though she is, kept bugger all from when I was tiny (really - I'd never seen a picture of me as a baby until I was a teenager as my parents only took a few pics and those were all developed as slides) so I decided that I would make sure my two can berate me for being sentimental when they are teenagers!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh thanks everyone, good to know I am not the only sentimental one out there!