Well, I have been bag a weeking for over 6 years now (started when my daughter went off to college) so I think I am up to the “sentimental items”. We never look at these albums. Maybe I can cull the photos and take some of the really best and keep them in a couple of albums and store away all the rest. I was thinking of labeling by date - the current albums are labelled by date. So it would be three piles - keep in an album, keep in a box, and throw away!
We weed our books all the time. We never buy new books any more, between using the library and reading stuff on the internet. I actually work in a library so I weed out books for a living!
Well, I started this morning. Went through 5 books (out of 50). Just took out the discards (didn’t do the 3 piles). Was fun remembering stuff from when my daughter was little. Looks like I will have maybe 20% of what I started with at this rate.
Who thought going through about 20 years of pictures starting with when my daughter was a baby would be so much fun? Old photos are a little like looking at social media - only years later. Only happy faces and fun times are represented. It is sort of sentimental, yet therapeutic at the same time. Can’t believe some of the stuff I had totally forgotten we did?
On the other hand, what was I thinking putting into album out of focus pictures, pictures where people look horrible, and photos of people I could care less about?
You guys have motivated me to go through our albums. There are 20 of them that can probably be reduced to a 1/3rd of that by getting rid of duplicates, blurry pics, etc… I’m going to buy two nice photo boxes and finally go through those albums and only keep the pics that are good. Great rainy weekend project (which we’re going to have).
I did get bogged down reading S’s preschool through 8th grade stuff. I am keeping those precious journals where
he tells his teacher how much he liked going to X with his family. The best was the horrid and awful trip to the beach
when he was 7 and yet he told his teacher he like being there! Priceless. We still talk about how awful his behavior was…
rosered55, I agree. It is motivating! Thanks, everyone.
I’ve been working hard (and it does feel hard) to keep up with an average of a bag a week. Wish I could do more of the Marie Kondo type of all at once thing, which I actually did with some kinds of clothes (all the ones that are in dresser drawers) but I don’t feel quite ready for the rest.
So I’m chipping away at it. Today I got rid of some beer (a style none of the family cares for) labeled “best by July 2008.” I hate to throw out food/drink, but if we haven’t drunk it by now, I don’t think we’re going to!
Fortunately, NCC actually picked up the several bags I left on the porch yesterday. I even added a couple since the time they failed to come, so I think I had 8 on the porch. I would have been pretty cranky if they didn’t show again.
I managed to cull 26 sloppy, disorganized photo albums into four organized, beautiful, new photo boxes. Score! That has been a “back burner” project of mine that I’ve mulled over doing for at least the past ten years so I’m thrilled that I actually tackled and completed it. It looks so good and I now know how to get my hands on whatever pictures I want in the photo boxes going forward.
Every year I get mine out, and wonder if the lights will still light. Good thing I got it out early this year, because it was dead. I think cramming it back into the box every year didn’t help.
So, I bought another one - an early Black Friday special. Our plan is to keep it in the basement, already put together - it comes in three large pieces, so once we carry the pieces down we will reassemble it. It will cut down on the fluffing next year, which is my husband’s job.
My dream is to have a Christmas tree closet that I can just wheel it in and out of, already decorated. :x
I dropped off two bags of donations today. So far we have not reloaded the family room with stuff after getting new carpet. I still have 4 boxes left to go through and find homes for or give away.
I found a few dozen books that I think can be parted with, and my older daughter added a few to the piles. I will take them to the library or Goodwill as soon as I’m organized enough to do so.
I am very grateful that, after we go through all our stuff, there are organizations out there that can take our discarded stuff and put it to good use for someone else.