What Do I Do With Sentimental Stuff as a Professional Organizer?

Organizing sentimental stuff is hard.

You have an emotional connection to the items and it’s hard to anticipate what you will regret tossing and what you will care about in 20 years. (Or what your children will care about in 20 years.) 

Photos, the clay pot your child made in first grade, your grandfather’s medal from military service… should they be saved for prosperity? How do you decide?

One clarifying question you can ask yourself is “What is the end goal for this item?”

The answer might be:

1. It will be enjoyed by me during my lifetime.

2. My kids will enjoy this item after I’m gone. 

3. 1. and 2.

4. None of the above… nobody actually enjoys or wants this item…I just thought I was supposed to save stuff like this.

Another helpful question is, “What quantity of this item will be reasonable and enjoyable to look at later on…”

Let’s use childhood keepsakes as an example. A small curated box may be the perfect size to look through and enjoy in future years. Five large boxes of will likely be overwhelming. Most of us just have too much stuff and if everything is saved then nothing is meaningful. Curating and editing allows you to actually enjoy and interact with your memories. It’s a gift for yourself and future generations.

A final question to consider, is how often do you want to look at this item?

1. I want to look at it everyday! 

2. I want to look at it occasionally when I feel like reminiscing.

3. I don’t enjoy this item… I just feel guilty throwing it away.

Every day? Put that photo of grandma on your dresser!  Display the heirloom vase on a bookcase. Not every day? Put it in a box and label it so you will actually be able to find it when you want it. Feel guilty throwing it away? Lean into that feeling for a bit and see how high the stakes really are… is it really worth that object taking up physical and mental space?

OK, now let’s get into some specific categories…

Kids artwork

If you have young kids who are creating stacks of artwork daily, imagine it is 20 years from now and your kids are grown. How will you want to enjoy the artwork from their childhood? Maybe a single photo book on your coffee table will be enough. With this end goal in mind, you can focus on snapping pictures on your phone of favorite art creations. Save them in a digital album to be printed as a book later on. The physical original artwork can be enjoyed for a while on the fridge then trashed without guilt.

If the tactile experience of holding the artwork in your hands matters, you could save a few pieces in a bin where you keep other keepsakes for that child. Just don’t save everything.

A collection passed on from a loved one

Your aunt collected sugar bowls and it's not really your thing? Pick your favorite to display on a bookshelf to honor and remember her. Donate the rest. 

Photos

Photos are one of the most time consuming categories to organize. If you aren't ready to dive into a major photo project, just put your photos in a box or a bin labeled “photos” for now.

When you have the bandwidth, you might decide you want to digitize your physical photos from the pre-digital era. You’ll want to edit first (toss blurry photos, duplicates, and photos without people in them.)

You may even decide to trash some perfectly good photos because you have more than enough of a particular person at a particular age. I recently sorted the photos from my childhood and I trashed some of my own baby photos (I know some of you are shocked and appalled…) but there were sooo many- like 20 almost identical shots of me in the same outfit making slightly different expressions as a 6 month old. Don’t think of yourself as a monster… you are a curator of memories.

Once you’ve edited down your physical collection of photos, you have a few options for digitizing:

1. If you are willing to invest the time and effort you can buy a photo scanner and do it yourself.

2. There are lots of online companies that will digitize your photos for you- you just mail in the physical copies. LegacyBox and Southtree are just a couple examples. These online companies offer frequent promos so you can get a good deal on a large amount of scanning.

3. If you feel nervous about shipping your precious memories, you could opt for a local company. The Photo Archivers in Columbia is a fantastic local business.… I plan to use them to digitize my own childhood photos as well as some heirloom family photos.

A Note on Digital photos- If you had kids in the digital era you probably have thousands of photos of your kids stored in an online platform. Now this isn’t taking up physical space, and extra memory is relatively cheap, but editing and organizing your digital photos can increase your enjoyment of them. MissFreddy is a great follow for tips on organizing and using the power of technology to make your life easier.

Childhood Keepsakes

This category could be combined with artwork. It might include toys, baby blankets, the outfit they came home from the hospital in. My personal strategy is to have a bin for each “era” of a kid’s childhood. I have one bin for the baby-preschool years, one for elementary school, and one for middle and high school. If an item feels cute or funny or special, or makes me want to cry thinking how sad it is that they are growing up, I toss it in the bin. If the bin gets full I evaluate what my favorites are and make some cuts. The memories are tidy and accessible for me to enjoy. As my kids have gotten older they have started to take more ownership over what they want in their bins so the collections have becomes more a reflection of what matters to them. When I am purging the kitchen counter of schoolwork and knickknacks my kids will often protest if they see me heading for the trash can, but I can offer- “why don’t we put this in your special bin.” I keep the bins for their current age near the kitchen so it’s easy to quickly toss items in them. I don’t have files or sub-compartments within the bins… everything just swims together. The simplest system is the easiest to maintain!

Kids trophies and awards

If your kids are still young, let your kids take ownership over this category. If this stuff matters to your kid, help them designate a shelf or a box where they can store these items. These are items that have significance to your child now, so honor that in this season. 

If your kids are grown you’ll probably want to downsize your collection of trophies and medals. You can save a couple and incorporate them into a bin of general keepsakes for that child. (Or maybe neither you nor your kids care any longer about their old trophies… you have my permission to toss them all and move freely into your future!)

Memorabilia from a Job or Season of Life

Holding onto memories from years in military service or time spent living abroad? Decide how much space in your home you are willing to devote to storing items from this category. Designate a bin or a shelf, any defined area. Then edit down your collection to fit in this space.

 

Letters, Cards, Small Personal Items

These can all swim together as one big happy family in a pretty box labeled “sentimental” or “Jennifer- Sentimental.” Maybe you eventually want to make a special scrapbook of old cards and photos. That’s a great goal but it is a project in and of itself. Placing all the items in a box together can be good enough for now (or good enough forever!) You can rifle through the items in the box when you want to reminisce.

Done is better than perfect

If you are feeling paralyzed trying to make decisions about what to keep- you might be idealizing a perfectly curated, perfectly organized museum worthy system.

Any system or attempt to bring order, is better than shoving stuff in a closet to languish. Stop setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Your future self will thank you and so will future managers of the stuff you leave behind!