<p>I admit I would like to save everything- but they “dont want it” and I don’t have room for it.
Over the years I have given away most of their clothes but I still hold onto random scribblings and while I started giving away beanie babies ( from the youngest- it was a bribe to get her to change schools when she was 8) at Halloween, I still have more stuffed animals, european baby dolls and raffi cassette tapes than I know what to do with.</p>
<p>If my house was big enough for storage- I would just box it up, but as it is, I have to box up my summer clothes and store our camping stuff on the back porch.
Perhaps because my mother didn’t save anything from when I was a kid, I am predisposed to having difficulty, and I do admit that if I could get my husband to part with more of his misc crap that he hasn’t looked at for 30 years we would have more room-( on the other hand I need those old MaCAddict magazines, newspapers from when Princess Diana was killed and when the Mariners won the AL west ) but I have such a hard time organizing even the stuff I need every month, let alone memorabilia.</p>
<p>Im thinking of getting a decent scanner and putting it on disk- my scanner is awful.</p>
<p>teddy bear
Book given and signed by preschool teacher
A trunkful of Legos (can be used by visitors, hopefully grandchildren one day)
A Brio train set (same as above)
Knex (ibid)
thousands of baseball cards that need to be sorted and filed
Daily journals they wrote when we went on vacations
School yearbooks
the science logbooks for a couple of their elementary school science fair projects
A 3’X4’ model of the Roman Forum
a cross-stitch quilt my friend made for son when he was a baby
trophies and ribbons
photo scrapbooks</p>
<p>We have saved too much also. (My mom also tossed most of my precious stuff.)</p>
<p>Mom did give me a box of baby clothes to put on my dolls when I was 8 or so. Somehow those stayed in the house, and my daughter wore a lot of them- the ones without crayon ground into them… The only other baby clothes that survived was the scratchy baptismal outfit.</p>
<p>(we do have a full basement the size of our house, however, as well as their bedrooms are intact.</p>
<p>So, this means…we have all of their schoolwork including all pieces of writing by year starting as toddlers through college in boxes by year, all of their artwork from the first scribble…all catalogued, every photo, all of their awards/trophies/ribbons, all the programs/playbills/etc. of every event they were in filed by type, most of their toys and dolls including blocks, American girl collection (unless a few we gave away). all scrapbooks/photoalbums/yearbooks, every journal, every report card, every college application and acceptance, every book, trinkets from all their travels, all their clothing (except some that I give away when I meet people), their first skis, all of their Halloween costumes including homemade ones, all of their dance costumes, collections (such as snowglobes, rocks), brochures/playbills to events they have attended, all birthday cards ever received from us/siblings/grandparents, etc…you get the idea. :D</p>
<p>Ive saved stuff that I think I liked better than they did ( but it was fun to give away bags of Barbie heads)
Lots of Playmobile- Ive passed on the legos & expensive wooden blocks- we had a ton- but frankly they didn’t play with them that much- so I donated them to their preschool, they got more use out of them.
( the baseball cards are mine- I actually have most of them in an album)
I have lots of baseball magazines with Griffey on the cover- want some with A-rod ? :p</p>
<p>They kept daily journals? that is a great idea</p>
<p>I have been saving my younger daughters papers that she dumps in recycling. ( I am not snooping, but she keeps dumping stuff in there that isn’t recyclable- and she has written a few papers, that I never saw, and that are very insightful- says her mom)</p>
<p>I’m a lot more like Soozie. I need to start weeding stuff out. I have saved a file per year per kid of report cards, artwork, special papers, concert programs. I have several storage boxes per kid of favorite clothes, toys, trophies, etc. I saved “trend” toys - pogs, Ninja Turtles, American Girls. I have a set of shelves with toys that still get used by nieces, visitors, and hopefully someday grandkids – Brio train, legos, doll house and furnishings, baby dolls and supplies, etc.</p>
<p>I have also saved things my kids put out for disposal. For instance, my S2 threw out all of his old soccer jerseys, and I “rescued” them.</p>
<p>My husband still has his matchbox cars- gi joe and misc plastic boxes that once held flies ( for fishing) that might come in handy at some point :rolleyes:</p>
<p>So we still have matchbox cars- I also am hanging on to all their tshirts(well most) from misc commerative events and teams- perhaps I will make a quilt ( when I have the time)? .
Its also possible that while they are quite adamant they aren’t going to have kids- that they may still be interested in their stuff in 10 or 20 years.</p>
<p>I just hope that they aren’t like my sister- who has never forgiven my mother for giving away a particularly ( tacky) favorite dress of hers.</p>
<p>I saved my D’s first love letter that she got from a boy at her after-school day care in kindergarten, scrawled on a scrap of paper - just precious!!</p>
<p>Also the dresses that both my D’s were baptized in…</p>
<p>I’ve truly saved everything. But my husband goes to an even more extreme. If the kids go through their rooms and throw out bonafide trash that isn’t in the categories I have already listed here…he picks through it and saves a lot of it. I’m talking very very very minor things or trinkets. </p>
<p>Binx…we have every soccer jersey as well. I notice in a photo of my D overseas this summer, she was even wearing an elementary school soccer tee shirt in it. LOL.</p>
<p>“Today we went to the air and spase muzeum. I got a cool book of flyling airplanes. I ate a hot dog. It had kachup. Then it rained and we went back.”</p>
<p>We still have a LOT of their toys in the basement. Old kitchen cabinets from previous remodeling, sitting on the floor, serve as toy cabinets. Some of my sophomore boy’s friends still play with the massive (his father’s plus his and older brothers’) Lego set. The other toys will go to grandchildren as soon as I have some–“Here! Take this home with you!”–or be around for the grandkids to play with at our house.</p>
<p>Papers and art projects, I’ve tried to weed as they got older and we needed desk/closet space for the next upcoming high schooler. Still too much around, but I figure when they leave home for good (only one has accomplished that so far) they can do more weeding.</p>
<p>I hate to throw stuff out if I have the space, b/c you never know what they’re going to have a sentimental memory of. “You threw out my _________?” Some day they can deal with it.</p>
<p>Some of MY stuff is still in my father’s attic. Someday I’ll have to deal with that… :)</p>
<p>Pogs - we must have a thousand of them! Beanie babies - 200?? Told H that after D’s room is cleaned out - then we tackle the basement. I used to be sentimental, but now - just get rid of it! But, I have my “special items” that I will never throw out or give away. Among them, D’s first dress that she wore on my first Mother’s Day and her coming-home-from-the-hospital outfit. One funny thing I recently came across -the letter she sent us from her one and only time at sleepaway camp when she was about 10. It was priceless! Written on her first night, it was “get me out of here, I hate it, I’m homesick, etc.” She ended up loving camp and I’m thinking of sending her a copy to remind her that (hopefully) she’ll end up loving her college, too, once she gives it a chance.</p>
<p>re soccer
My D actually wears her *same *soccer jersey- she has been on the same team for 7 years- and most years they get new jerseys, but she gives them to her friends, or she cut one up ( to make some sort of halter top)
She also has worn the same shin guards for 7 years- yes they are nasty
she doesn’t like the new kind & we haven’t been able to find ones she likes that are just a bit bigger ( still looking though)</p>
<p>I have too much of everything too but the most important things for me after family photographs are the books I read to them most often as babies/preschoolers. Most of them aren’t exalted pieces of children’s literature, but they hold the most precious memories.</p>
<p>I now have an attic full of “favorite” books and toys, many of the older Fisher Price stuff that actually had the wooden people (as well as some of the plastic ones) before they eliminated the potential choking hazard and made the figures “obese”. (I’ll betcha I catch some flack for that remark. ;))</p>
<p>At least they’re made in the US. Grandkids may not be lead poisoned, but they’ll have to be monitored for other unsafe aspects.</p>
<p>I did clandestinely ditch the box of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the last Xmas decoration trip up there. I felt like a criminal. It’s only a matter of time before “she who must be obeyed” demands an inventory, then I’m toast.</p>
<p>Maybe I can blame it on the squirrels from last fall.</p>
<p>My daughter has more stuffed animals up there than Gund has in its daily production.</p>
<p>My wife has far too many of the kids’ school papers from as early as day 1, in various boxes throughout the garage and cellar. I’m just waiting for water damage or the threat of the dreaded “MOLD” before I can dispose of them.</p>
<p>Probably have every program or performance document that my son has ever played in, but they’re at least all in one place.</p>
<p>I continually ask the kids if they want this stuff. Despite the “no’s”, my wife always rescues the collection(s). </p>
<p>I’m out of room. Sentiment is one thing. Considering having to rent a climate controlled storage vault is another.</p>
<p>Packrats… sheesh.</p>
<p>ok… I’ll admit I might have a box or two of my old HO trains up there as well. They’re small boxes though. :)</p>
<p>I’m not much of a saver but do have a few special outfits, favorite toys and books, and lots of photos of both girls.</p>
<p>My very favorite thing is younger D’s letter to Santa when she was in second grade. I know every word, and for years I used a copy on an overhead transparency when I taught middle schoolers how to write a letter requesting a specific action. </p>
<p>Now you really have to imagine this in a 7-year-old’s agonizingly perfect D’Nealian printing:</p>
<p>Dear Santa,</p>
<p>How are you and Mrs. Claus? I hope the other reindeers are being nice to Rudolph.</p>
<p>Would you please get me a new dog? My old dog got ran over by my school bus.</p>
<p>And can you bring me some books because I really like to read.</p>
<p>Love,
ReneeV’s D</p>
<p>Santa couldn’t resist that one, and the new dog is now very old and still living back on the farm in WA (and SO happy to see D when we visit every two years).</p>
<p>I have an adorable sailor outfit that S1 wore to his uncle’s wedding when he was a year old. It is hanging in my walk-in closet on the wall by the window where I see it <em>every day</em>!</p>
<p>I can’t believe my big guy ever wore that! I’m off to buy him a North Face fleece in the morning and to visit h im at college for the weekend in the afternoon.</p>
<p>I’ve saved their Baptismal gowns/hats, their baby Xmas clothes (too cute!), their “coming home” outfits/blankets, their cutest baby clothes (that aren’t stained), their cutest booties, and their cutest baby shoes. </p>
<p>I also saved some baby girl clothes (never had a girl) that I had bought in “hopes” of some day having a girl.</p>
<p>spelling books
athletic equipment
tests/exams
valentines
elementary school yearbooks
their certificates and awards still hang on the wall in the family room
presidential physical fitness awards
kindergarten poem awards</p>