<p>“personalized items” such as ornaments, hand made items, precious baby clothes, First communion dress, flower girl dress, etc.</p>
<p>Like most, we have saved too much stuff, but I find myself letting go of a bit more each time I get in one of those “toss” moods. One day it hit me … do I really want DD (an only child) to have to go through a house full of “stuff” when DH and I are gone? I don’t want to do that to her. It’s unfair and too hard to toss stuff after a loved one is gone. Now is the time to do it. Some days I’m hard-core and really get to tossing … like my worn out Ms. Beasley doll and school papers I had from kindergarten up that my mother had saved for me. I have to occasionally remind myself that great memories are in my heart, not in the “stuff” that surrounds me. My motto for the past year has been “less is more”. I’m really going to try and stick with that! </p>
<p>DD used to collect Boyd’s Bears and has enough to stock a small store. If she wants to sell them, I support that. If she wants to keep them, I’ll save them till she has her own place. I kept her Brownie uniform with badges, her certificate from her first haircut, her first lost tooth, awards, a dollhouse, some special dolls, a few favorite books, swim trophies, report cards, yearbooks, dresses I smocked for her, and a few other items. I have a box of Christmas items I have for her that include her “special” ornament from each Christmas, ornaments handed down from grandparents and great-grandparents and other Christmas items that hold special memories for her. I figure when she has a place of her own, she’ll have a great start on Christmas decorations.</p>
<ul>
<li>all the pictures (tons for the oldest about 10 for the youngest)</li>
<li>project like school work and writing from school</li>
<li>awards earned (not the you showed up at baseball one day so we gave you a trophy trophies)</li>
<li>favorite books (hoping for grandtogos)</li>
<li>favorite toys (brio, lincoln logs, etc … again for the grandtogos)</li>
</ul>
<p>The toughest things to give up were some of the cloths. I LOVED my oldest jean jacket that she wore as a 2-3 year old … we kept it a few years … and then decided we would rather have someone use it than have it rot in storge. I do miss the jeanjacket, the floppy hats, the favorite onesies, etc.</p>
<p>soozievt,
You are my idol! Saved AND cataloged? Wow! We have a large basement and if you bring your dictionary and look up the word “chaos,” you’ll see a nice photograph of that area of my home. As others, I am also concerned about what my kids will have to clear out of this house when I am no longer around. But, that doesn’t seem to motivate me. :D</p>
<p>In general I am ruthless and not a saver as far as the household stuff is concerned , but the kid’s stuff is an exception. Most all the toys and all of the furniture/equipment are long gone to children of siblings or otherwise gotten rid of - I do still have a great Brio collection stored , and an unbelievable replica dollhouse that an extremely talented relative (now gone) built. A favorite outfit or two. A plaster hand mold of each kid. A couple of favorite books from their babyhood. The first time the kids wrote their names by themselves. A few of their school journals, the yearbooks etc. </p>
<p>The only ridiculous item on the list - every letter they wrote home for camp for all the years! That’s a LOT of letters! I know I will have to get rid of these at some point, but I still love reading them!</p>
<p>The only ridiculous item on the list - every letter they wrote home for camp for all the years! That’s a LOT of letters!</p>
<p>In our house that would be three
send my brush
send me food
don’t go in my room
;)</p>
<p>I am an infamous purger of unused stuff but there is some stuff I couldn’t get rid of…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>each S’s favorite ragged, loved to death stuffed animal</p></li>
<li><p>the giant rubbermaid tub of Legos</p></li>
<li><p>Matchbox/ Hot Wheels cars</p></li>
</ul>
<p>*the size 4T Levi jean jacket that both wore to preschool</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the outfits that each had their first baby pic. made in</p></li>
<li><p>all the yearbooks and pictures from every sport they ever played plus game programs</p></li>
<li><p>a letter to the tooth fairy</p></li>
<li><p>an autographed (to my S) copy of a Gary Paulson book (S’s favorite author as a kid)</p></li>
<li><p>childhood camcorder/home videos that make me cry</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Speaking of trophies,
Someone told me of an organization that takes old trophies and refurbs them for underprivileged youth.
If you want a record, you take a picture of the trophy, take the silver engraved thingy off and scrapbook them. Then you give the trophy to this group.
Has anyone heard of this?
We have boxes of “participation” trophies that are of little interest to the kids.</p>
<p>We have a “school notebook” with class and individual pictures, report cards and some samplings of their work (funny things or something particularly notable). We also have all awards they received, and for DS (the music major) EVERY program from every concert he has been in (he made fun of me until he needed to create a list of ALL repertoire he had played and <em>I</em> had it all). We also have a photo albums for each child…one of them as babies, and another that has pictures of every birthday party we had for them. Clothes…hm…I think I have one favorite baby outfit from each of them, and my daughter’s prom gown. No other clothes. We do have a huge collection of teddy bears, but they are actually somewhat collectible. And a quilt that was handmade for each of them. That’s it.</p>
<p>Lack of space prevents us from saving everything. So we take photographs of clothes and toys before giving them away. Of course, we still have a lot of stuff in boxes that we plan to look at when we retire.</p>
<p>Besides the memory boxes with their school and camp stuff?</p>
<p>Koko the Gorilla. The four foot high stuffed gorilla we bought them at FAO Schwartz in Manhattan. He’s in storage now, waiting for grandkids. Ditto the wooden blocks and the train sets.</p>
<p>Oh Cheers…I totally forgot about the Brio train set, the electric train set and ALL of the Legos…oh…and Samantha and all of her clothes and furniture.</p>
<p>How about all of the above PLUS notes from the babysitter in a series of notebooks ( more than 10 years worth, same sitter!!!), the dipstick from the positive pregnancy test and every lost tooth?</p>
<p>uh. . .I think I have their birth certificates, social security cards, and shot records around here somewhere. . . </p>
<p>(We’ve moved so many times-- I haven’t kept much at all).</p>
<p>Shrinkrap…we also have every lost tooth (and letters to the tooth fairy and responses) and the dipstick from the pregnancy tests!</p>
<p>And we also have a large gorilla/ape/monkey stuffed animal still in one D’s room, like cheers. </p>
<p>Thumper…we have all the stuff for Kristen, not Samantha…tons of clothes and furnitue and a girl of today or whatever it was called.</p>
<p>When D 1 was home recently for a few days which included her 21st birthday and one of her gifts we got her was new racing ski boots but she had to pick them out and so I wanted to wrap up something to signify that gift and so I only had to go into her room and look in her little armoir of clothing for her teddy bears and found a pair of little ski boots and wrapped those up. So, the stuff still lying around comes in handy, LOL.</p>
<p>^^^^ My gosh, Soozie, if one of your girls ever becomes President you will have plenty of material for the eventual Presidential Library! (perhaps the first with a pregnancy dipstick on display) :)</p>
<p>jyber^^^yeah, definitely enough for a museum collection! I hadn’t thought about President, but then again, we have had a president before who was an actor! :D</p>