Organizing Memories

Everyone has mementos from the past.  If you have children you may have even more mementos from their past.

We sorted through our daughter’s mementos this summer, before she headed off to college for her freshman year.

Unfortunately we didn’t eliminate many memories from her box but we enjoyed looking through them.

Tips for organizing memories:

• If your mementos are scattered throughout your home and need a place of their own simply, purchase a sturdy container to hold them.  A container has a limited capacity and will prevent you from keeping too much (unless you buy another container:).
• Every person in your household should have their own memory box.  Label it with their name.
• Store the boxes under beds or on a closet shelf.  You should have easy access to this box so you can add new memories without much effort.
• Keep things that are truly special.  If you keep everything, nothing is important.   Write the date and child’s name on their artwork, letters, cards, and papers.
• When the box is full, take a few minutes to sort and eliminate the items that you no longer feel strongly attached to.  You should be able to close the box and have room for a few more memories.

My clients usually find items they want to keep as memories.  While sorting stuff with one client, she asked me to add many items to her memory container.  At the end of our session she looked at the pile and said to me “I didn’t know I had so much to remember!”

Do you have too many memories?