Keepsakes - how sentimental are you?

[prozacprincess]

I’m definitely not sentimental about stuff. I was once, but I’ve gotten more ruthless with things over the years.
People that visit my house always thinks it’s odd that I have empty cupboards when they’re always buying storage stuff. I have things on display that I find beautiful but I never keep anything just because someone bought it for me. My husband on the other hand often needs reigning in when it comes to keeping stuff he longer uses or is broken … there are 3 vacuum cleaners in his workshop

 

[Black.bird]

I don't keep cards or anything, as I don't like hoarding things.

If something is super-important then I'll take a photo of it then re-home it.

When an elderly relative passed, I helped clear her house for sale and it was absolutely laden with 'stuff' that would have had special meaning to her in some way ... yet there was so much of it that she probably never even looked at any of it. From old newspapers (which smelt terrible) to top shelf alcohol bottles ... there was a LOT. In one room, where everything had been piled up against a wall, the wall was actually bent inwards. There were even wall cabinets full of fancy china and crystal - rarely (if ever) used as she was saving them "for best". The charity shops didn't want any of it, and nobody turned up to the scheduled garage sales, so it ended up in landfill.

 

[rainbowlemon]

I'm quite sentimental really. I have been with my partner for a long time and I've kept every ticket from every theatre show, concert, cinema, theme park trip etc that we've ever been on together I did try to dry out and frame some flowers from the first bunch he ever bought me but I mucked it up so they ended up in the bin but I would have kept them if I could.

When my Nanny passed away and we cleared her flat out I found myself wanting to keep everything, passports, pictures, her mug she always used But it became too much and I think you have to draw a line and only really keep things that have true meaning. In the end I decided on keeping her diary that she filled out everyday, because it meant a lot to me that I could read back on her thoughts and I found it comforting as it felt like I was having a conversation with her. She'd left all of her jewellery to me in her Will so I obviously had that and the only other thing I kept was an old photo album because it had lots of pictures in of us together when she used to look after me.

I think unless something has a specific meaning, or is useful then it seems silly to keep everything. Especially if things don't work or genuinely won't be used. When clearing things out, my Dad always used to say if you haven't looked at, used, or thought about an item in the last 12 months then chances are it can go. If it were that sentimental you'd have done one of those three things with it in the last year.

If you have photos of your first bunch of flowers you can ask a florist to make up the same arrangement. There’s lots of people on Etsy who also dry and frame flowers so you could have a copy.