Sparking joy?

[MI-skier]

When my mother died 16 years ago, I cleaned the house and her belongings. What remains with me to this day from that experience was despite what we accumulate in one's life, will it hold value (monetary/emotional) not just to the next generation but even after to the 3rd and 4th?

Really by the 4th generation you are pretty much forgotten. My grandparents and the items I still have from them have no emotional value to my kids. Photos are really the only thing left. What I do love though are the stories. I am hoping the memory books that I make with the stories are what get retained and passed down.

 

[Skier31]

My mom has about 50 photo albums. While I might look at them at some point, realistically, what do you do with them? Put them on a shelf? Store in a box? I struggle with all of this. I do not have children and will not. Difficult.

 

[MI-skier]

My mom has about 50 photo albums. While I might look at them at some point, realistically, what do you do with them? Put them on a shelf? Store in a box? I struggle with all of this. I do not have children and will not. Difficult.

Depends on what you want to do. You could pass them on to extended family members. Whittle them down to just a few albums containing your favorites. Scan and digitize to minimize storage.

 

[RachelV]

My mom has about 50 photo albums. While I might look at them at some point, realistically, what do you do with them? Put them on a shelf? Store in a box? I struggle with all of this. I do not have children and will not. Difficult.

Every time we go home my brother & I talk about digitizing the many boxes of old photos floating around various relatives houses. They really are amazing and I think the whole extended family would love it if they were online & easy to browse. If anyone has actually used a service to do that kind of thing I'd love a recommendation.

 

[marzNC]

My mom has about 50 photo albums. While I might look at them at some point, realistically, what do you do with them? Put them on a shelf? Store in a box? I struggle with all of this. I do not have children and will not. Difficult.

Also depends on the content and era. I kept the oldest photo albums my parents put together with photos from the 1950s and 1960s, which was after they were settled in the U.S. for good. There was also an album with pictures from the 1930s when my father lived at the Univ. of Chicago International House as a grad student. I kept a few that included him and gave the rest to the I-House for their archives.

My father had packed 20 boxes of papers and books related to being a professor that he wanted to keep when they moved to the retirement community. There was a small storage area associated with the retirement community apartment. My mother asked after they moved what he wanted her to do with the contents of the boxes if he died first. His answer was simple. After he was gone, she could toss it all out. After he died, what she had my brother and I recycle the contents.

I've tossed out far more old paperwork in recent years after the experience of dealing with my parents' stuff.

 

[marzNC]

When my mother died 16 years ago, I cleaned the house and her belongings. What remains with me to this day from that experience was despite what we accumulate in one's life, will it hold value (monetary/emotional) not just to the next generation but even after to the 3rd and 4th?

Really by the 4th generation you are pretty much forgotten. My grandparents and the items I still have from them have no emotional value to my kids. Photos are really the only thing left. What I do love though are the stories. I am hoping the memory books that I make with the stories are what get retained and passed down.

Quite true in general, but you never know about what kids might get interested in as they get older. Recently my brother's daughter came for a visit. She's almost 30. Much to my surprise, she was quite interested in the old photos and the few items I have that my parents collected during their travels. My brother is not a collector or much of a family photographer. She was not particularly interested in stuff like that when she was younger.

 

[geargrrl]

My mom passed away last spring. One thing that I am truly grateful for is her deliberate de-cluttering and paring down of her worldy goods. She lived independently to the very end. Her place wasn't sparse at all, but much of the art and books was given way, furniture and clothing were down to what she actually used, collectibles were down to the few most meaningful.... much of what was left was marked with a post it as to who got it. She was very prepared for the end of her life.

 

[Skier31]

I have a very small extended family. I am in my early 50's (how did that happen so fast? ), no children and live in a condo with limited storage. Upon retirement, the Denver condo will be sold and everything in there will have to be moved. I could pay to have the photos digitalized but the reality is that I may never look at them. My mom and dad had all of our home movies put on videotape and there is a drawer full of them at their house. I guess what I am saying is that practically I could throw them away but feel guilty for doing that. On the other hand, I don't want to move a bunch of stuff to Colorado only to repeat the process of culling through stuff in a few years.

This whole process is emotionally draining and just sad.

 

[VickiK]

Not easy.

 

[santacruz skier]

Our family photos were all put on several video tapes about 20 years ago... But who has a VCR anymore?

 

[Jilly]

I do!! I'm in the works of putting all the slides on disc for the family. That should clean up a pile of boxes!!

 

[Jenny]

Our family photos were all put on several video tapes about 20 years ago... But who has a VCR anymore?

Um - we do. (But it hasn’t been used in years.)

 

[santacruz skier]

So now I need to convert the VHS tapes somehow...... Actually it was my dad's idea many years ago. He was an avid amateur photographer and took photos of family ALL the time. Ad nauseum we thought as kids but so much fun to watch as adults once on VHS...

 

[geargrrl]

So you get them converted to DVD. Then THAT format goes away and you have to get them converted to something else. I like the idea of saving just a few significant things.

 

[Skier31]

Finished closet today. As I mentioned, I modified the method a bit.

I now understand why she says put everything in one category together. I did not follow the instructions explicity and have ended up moving some things back and forth. Overall, I am pleased with the results and feel it is something I can continue without too much effort.

I appreciate everyone’s support. I go to Florida next week to be there when the mover’s come.

 

[skibum4ever]

I'm impressed by some of what I've read. I guess like anything else you have to decide what works for you.

I do not plan to empty my purse and put everything away when I get home. I would just put the exact same stuff in the next day.

I do, however, take inventory of my purse once or twice a week and empty out receipts and such.

Maybe that process would work for me if I changed purses every day.

 

[skibum4ever]

This is of course somewhat facetious, but I began to wonder if the same criteria can be applied to people:

"Keep only those friends who bring you joy."

One hears a lot about toxic relationships these days, and I can't help feeling that if we applied the Kendo rule to our friends, those toxic people would be avoided.

 

[Abbi]

Truth be told, I am mediocre at best at this sort of thing. I went through the garage last weekend and kept childhood stuffed animals, books, 2 princess phones, my father's rusty tools.

 

[marzNC]

Every time we go home my brother & I talk about digitizing the many boxes of old photos floating around various relatives houses. They really are amazing and I think the whole extended family would love it if they were online & easy to browse. If anyone has actually used a service to do that kind of thing I'd love a recommendation.

The family camp that my family attends in the summer in the midwest has been around for 60 years. Several years ago they decided it was worth the investment to convert all the photos from various photo albums from every decade before digital photography became the standard. The service used was Scandigital based in Indiana. A photo comes out in 600dpi and the cost is under $1 each, can be as low as $0.50. As I remember, don't even need to take photos out of albums or organize a box of loose photos. Basically ship stuff as is and get back digital formats for still pictures or film/video. Over 1000 photo files now exist. Made it easy to print a few in large format for the big anniversary celebration last week.

 

[2ski2moro]

Timely topic for me. We are moving from our NY home of 20 years to Connecticut. I have been purging all summer. DH and I both had our own homes before our marriage. Then, I inherited nice pieces from my Great Aunt. I have things from my parents' house, and then the Germans who were on a temporary assignment here left a lot of their things for me to sell or donate. ALL. OF. IT. IS. STILL. IN. MY. BASEMENT. You get the picture.

All summer, I have been sorting, purging, organizing, discarding, donating. I have donated literally 20 large bags of clothing and countless bags went to the dump (transfer station) on the utility trailer.

And my DH is one file drawer away from an episode of Hoarders. His file system is abysmal. He keeps every receipt and invoice, whether it is important or not. ("Honey, scan it and toss the paper.")

He kept his college textbooks. ("Honey, throw them out." "What if I need them?" "Algebra? Fundamentals of Business Spreadsheets? You could always go to the library." "Library? They are still good." ARRRRRRGGGGGG) Where are you going to put them? It's a 1400 sq ft condo! "Let's get a storage unit!" Honey, if you are not using it now, you are not going to start using it by keeping it in a storage unit.

He kept every sports team t-shirt and sweatshirt he ever had. If I hear, "But it's still good..." once more, I will scream. Or "I can wear it to work in the yard..." No. You do not need 5 different sweatshirts to 'work in the yard.'

Now, I am getting ready to move us to a rental condo next week. Some things go to the condo. Some things have to stay to "stage" my house. Some things will eventually move to the condo when the house sells. Some will go into storage and move again when we build a house next summer.

I have a headache.

I have a big sign in my office.