Parting with sentimental items

[Charles_Foster]

Over the weekend my husband and I had to painstakingly go through ever single box in our garage and try to cut our items down about 75%.

In the beginning it was super easy.

Out of date training materials from my husband’s work.

Broken printer.

So many broken printers.

Near the time we were getting super confident about our ability to get rid of this crap,

We got to the good stuff.

I found box after box after box of handwritten journals.

An entire box of notes my best friend wrote me in high school.

Pictures.

Odd items that just immediately took me back in time.

As we set these aside to keep,

The pile got larger and larger.

Our garbage pile was being totally neglected.

Three days ago my whole house was 100% packed and ready to go.

Now I’m surrounded by basically another household to neatly pack.

We got the large part of the garage cleared, but I’m fully disappointed in the amount of stuff we decided to keep.

Do we really need notes our girlfriend/boyfriend in 10th grade passed us in class?

Do I have to keep items that really have no meaning aside from the fact that I’ve had them since childhood?

I really want to throw some of this stuff,

But looking around I can’t see a single thing I want to part with.

And it’s all crap.

What are your thoughts on this?

How much of your crap are you still hauling around?

[broken]

Thats stuff I instantly throw away. I have nothing like that.

[Andrey]

Luckily my parents’ house is extremely large.
We also have an attic.
Basically we could’ve gone our whole lives without ever throwing anything away.
But we did, on several occasions.
Extremely personal items like letters and journals → only mom had the guts to part with those. I probably never will.
Clothes, furniture, books - we mostly deem those disposable, except a few items.
Souvenirs, gifts we offer each other… We usually keep for life.

[Catman]

@Charles_Foster

I totally understand. We get emotionally attached to certain things, so when we throw them out we feel a sense of loss.

I was in that situation when my mother died. I kept some pictures and key chains, but a lot of stuff I had to shred. It took me 18 months to delete her phone number from my contacts.

So allow yourself to grieve, then you have to throw the stuff out in order to move on to the next chapter in your life.

[sweetpotatocasserole]

You could photograph onto a camera and save the pictures digitally. Not the same but at least you can look at the photos of these items.

[Qwerty]

I don’t have a lot to be honest. Partly cos I lived abroad for years and so had to get rid of things. But also partly cos I’m a minimalist to a certain extent.

It sounds like you have been really busy. I hope your move goes smooth and everything.

[anon28552576]

I was going to mention the same thing about photographs.

Also. You don’t necessarily have to keep every note and letter, for example, just pick your favorites.

My husband goes through cycles of serious illness, so for my own sanity, I’ve made specific worst case scenario plans.

I’ll part with everything except for what fits in one trip in my sister’s Land Rover. She’s two hours away, so that and my mom’s little Jetta is all the room I get, plus I’ll be living with one of them so there won’t be room for much

I sympathize. My best solutions is to break up collections and take photos before parting with things.

Like, we have a ton of stuffed animals in a big Rubbermaid bin in the closet. Those are sentimental from over the years but won’t make the cut…but I will photographing them before I give all but four away.

Or the huge Sandicast wolf head he gave me as a wedding gift. The little mouse and bunny figurines we’ve collected.

All significant items, but I’ll have to be ruthless before I get whisked off to share a 645 sq ft condo.

Personally I’m a major minimalist, so it won’t be hard at all when the time comes. Plus I’ve been preparing emotionally so I’m not blindsided

[WhiteRaven]

I drove to Alaska from Florida 14 years ago and everything I owned fit in the back of my pickup truck. Now I’ve accumulated so much stuff I’d need a moving truck to go anywhere! I sure hope I never have to move and filter thru all the crap I own!

[77nick77]

In my last few moves I got rid of almost everything. I accidentally even got rid of my photo albums dating back to when I was a teenager and I got rid of all my dads personal affects I had after he died. I even got rid of my coin collection. When I lived in my studio it was filled with furniture and all the stuff a normal household would have. All gone from my furniture down to my books and DVD collection.

When I moved into this apartment I had a bare minimum of possessions now I got a bunch of small stuff I accumulated over 6 years. Not counting my clothes I could probably fit everything I own into 5 medium boxes.

[Loke]

I’m not one to hold onto things or I wasn’t but I’ve picked up my dad’s habit of keeping unnecessary things like empty Mayo jars. My dad makes gravy in those. Mixes milk & flour and shakes it. I have a bunch of stuff in my house that belongs to my niece and daughter