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Archiving Your Life

WHO Are You Saving This Stuff For?

Life Lesson Series

If you are like most people of a certain age, you have likely kept all of the “important” things that document your life’s big moments. Photos, letters, souvenirs, travel documentation, diplomas, uniforms, gowns, artifacts – a whole lot of stuff.

Do you know exactly what you have and where it is? Do you review it every so often?

No? Why do you keep anything, especially things that are important, stashed and hidden away in boxes that you don’t look at or even enjoy?

Now’s the time to make some changes!

I recommend you review your collection of goodies once every five years – you can enjoy an afternoon sauntering down your own personal memory lane AND perhaps thin out the collection a bit. I know you don’t want to be THAT person that keeps everythingand then forgets about it and the eventual task of sorting through the collection falls on someone else’s shoulder. DON’T. BE. THAT. PERSON.

Personally, I like the idea of enjoying one’s treasures and actually living with them or, better yet, creating STORYTELLING DISPLAYS with them. That’s my jam and what I try to promote.

Those “important” things aren’t doing anyone any good moldering away in box. Ugh!

And – I suspect you probably don’t just have your personal life’s-big-moments artifacts but also your family’s. Perhaps your parents or grandparents things too. Then this opens a whole ball of wax because this collection of goodies might expand to include china, furniture, art, linens, figurines and all sort of doo-dads.

I bring this up because you need to hear some HARD TRUTHS now. Whatever you are keeping, collecting and saving for ‘later’ … your kids won’t want any of it. It’s better for you to embrace this idea now so you can put the kabosh on further storing (saving for the kids) and change your mindset for good.

Don’t be distressed or personally insulted that your kids won’t want your (or Granny’s) things. It is a generational thing and today, simplicity and stream-lined living is in vogue.

Take the opportunity to ask your kids now what they might like and what sentimental items mean something to them – then LIBERATE those items. There are SO many opportunities to create really special displays out of these old things – to enjoy and live with them.

A Few Ideas …

The Special China – just use it. Everyday. What good is it sitting in an over stuffed cabinet?

Special Silverware – same thing – use it. Or create other things with it. I know a fellow who turns old fashioned elaborate sterling silver flatware into gorgeous rings – and he does it in a way that maintains the pattern. Or sell it (gasp!) I know another person who creates incredible baskets from old ties or scarves. What a practical and wonderful way to honor that special man in your life. Another friend made a wall-hanging quilt out of her husband’s business suits when he retired – and out went the suits to make room for clothing better suited (excuse the pun! 🤭) for leisure and sports.

There are still collectors for some of the old stuff so don’t just toss it. Have a yard sale or set up at the local flea market. There are plenty of online auction houses as well if you have something of real monetary value. But the truth my friends, is that your treasures probably don’t have any real monetary value. The value is in it’s sentimental connections, so find out who it matters to and divvy the stuff up.

Of course, there may be some important value in the things you hidden away but if no one knows it, there is a real risk those items could be tossed unknowingly. So share the intel about your stash!

If you do decide to distribute those things elsewhere (sell or donate), take photos first. You can always enjoy viewing what the room used to look like over a cup of tea poured in that fancy china pattern.

My Pledge

I am committed to changing the mindset of folks who have way too many things hidden away, stashed in garages, attics or basements (or worse, storage units – egads!) Things they swear are of great importance. I also want to get you thinking about bringing more stuff (or not) into your house. There will be chances to accept wonderful things from aging relatives … but should you? Learning how to make judicious decisions about what you accept and keep is a really important skill to develop now.

Who is with me on this? I will be launching a course in June to take you through step-by-step  the process to tackle all of these areas. The goal is to free up some space and create some storytelling displays that you and your family will actually want to keep. Yay!

Stay tuned my friends … the best is yet come!

PS:  👀

I also wanted to include a link to a wonderful article written by Jill Smolowe for Next Avenue where she describes how she made the choices she did when deciding what to keep from her Mother’s estate, and where to put those items to live with and enjoy. Check it out …

https://www.nextavenue.org/want-my-parents-stuff/

Be sure to visit me on FB too! https://www.facebook.com/ArchivingOptions

© 2019 Archiving Options

Archiving Your Life

It’s All About The Sort – I Did It Too

So, I mentioned earlier that I know exactly what it feels like to be facing a garage/attic/basement/any storage space full of boxes and things, right? Stick with me – I have a bonus for you at the end of this blog!

Earlier this year I did my own Swedish Death Cleanse. If you are not familiar with the term, here is a quick summary of what it means:

döstädning = death cleanse

This decluttering practice from Sweden is meant to relieve a burden on family after one’s passing. Essentially, a family or a person goes through their things, room by room and discards anything that does not have real meaning. The idea is, if it doesn’t have meaning, it has no worth.

The practice is viewed as a liberating, but time consuming practice.

It can be very enjoyable to review items and share memories with family and then evaluate if it should be kept or discarded. Private items such as diaries or love letters should be discarded if they might cause your loved ones harm or unhappiness. Destruction of such items is actually promoted.

There. That’s a Swedish Death Cleanse. Now you know.

Look, I am not an old person nor am I near death but I had to do this cleanse. I had SO MUCH STUFF in my garage that I have been storing and bringing with me whenever I relocated.

Personal stuff I had been hanging onto since … well … the 1960’s when I was a little kid.

And guess what? Before I got in there and really sorted through it, I would not have been able to describe exactly what the stuff was except that it was SUPER IMPORTANT and THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

Ahem. Yeah. NO.

You want the truth?

The boxes and trunks I had so reverently set aside and cared for through multiple moves were mostly old stuff and things that I really didn’t need to keep. These boxes and trunks full of stuff did NOT reflect the story of my life. And to think I paid movers to schlepp this stuff every time I moved!

I was fortunate to be able to block out a day or so to actually go through all of this stuff that has been taking up so much space. All that space devoted to stuff I didn’t need to keep – FOR YEARS!

This so-called death cleanse was driven by the need to reclaim my garage for a real, practical purpose.

I needed the space in my garage for me – for real purposes.

Am I speaking to you yet? Am I telling your story too?

Here what I found when I went through the Decluttering and Sorting steps:

  • School work – elementary through university
  • My drawings and art work from childhood
  • Annual calendars going back to the 1970’s
  • Letters going back to elementary school
  • Notes (the kind you passed in class)
  • Photos
  • Yearbooks going back to middle school
  • Scrapbooks
  • Mementos
  • Love letters
  • Certificates
  • Reception response cards
  • Wedding planning stuff
  • Financial documents going back to my first job
  • Career stuff – highlights and lowlights

And what did I learn?

Well, it was both fun and tedious, to be honest with you.

It was tedious to look at boxes and boxes of stuff I didn’t even know I had and now wondered why the heck I did! It was fun to rediscover my younger self at so many different ages. So many fun memories made me laugh out loud and smile.

More than anything, I was astounded at the stuff I kept and didn’t really need. Things I didn’t LOVE, NEED or USE but for some reason, thought I would need some day. Like my third grade paper on Native Americans or my college paper on Byzantine Art … really?

This was an important exercise for me to go through. I learned what was important to me and important enough to keep and protect. So many items (photos and papers) were rotting because I had not properly protected them. Don’t let that happen to you.

I went through the steps in ✷ A FREE COPY ✷ Start Archiving 101 to start protecting what I wanted to keep and eventually had an EDIT box to work through.

Using Editing steps I developed, I was able to whittle 3 trunks and 5 boxesof stuff into 2 small photos boxes and 1 small trunk of items worth keeping– many of which I now have on display because they tell my story.

I actually plan on repeating this exercise once a decade until I have one tiny cigar box of precious mementos left. Memories take no space friends – we just need a few precious things to trigger them.

I’ll share more about the EDIT process later.

Until then, Happy Archiving!

How is your archiving going??

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