Organising the Memories

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imageI think that one of my first ever posts focused on the amount of things that I have collected over the years. I’m the last person that could ever be considered to be houseproud, but while I’m by no means a hoarder in the typical sense, I have noticed that this collection is growing steadily larger as time goes by.

I spent some time this morning trying to get some sort of idea of what things I actually have – it’s been two years since my last major declutter, which was when we last moved house, but I had no idea of just how much that I’ve added to the pile since then. My attempt to tidy up has resulted in me trashing large areas of the house – The Bloke will be delighted when he gets home I’m sure!

The thing is, they’re mainly small items that I keep for their sentimental value and the memories that they evoke, particularly when it comes to places I have visited. Tickets, objects, cards, keyrings – I have box after box of things that are just, well, in a box. It seems completely pointless to keep them, and yet I can’t bring myself to throw them away. I’ve kept every birthday and Christmas card I’ve ever received from my mother since I was about ten years old, every card that The Bloke has ever given me, all the letters I was sent when my oldest friend and I went off to different universities, postcards, maps… I have a set of tiny ceramic clogs from Amsterdam, a dreidel from the Holocaust Museum (one of the most moving experiences of my life) and a token from one of the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C. , a Little Brown Bag from Macy’s in New York, a tiny Eiffel Tower, a map of The Louvre and a napkin from Laduree in Paris, a decorated wine glass that my mother gave me on my 30th birthday. I have show tickets and programmes, certificates, tube tickets, even children’s books that I have repurchased after they were sold at a car boot sale when I was a teenager.

I did make an attempt to organise things a while ago, and I have half-finished scrapbooks and notebooks that I started adding things into and then got bored.

Now I have a holiday, I think that it is about time that I started to do what I set out to initially do nearly three years ago – now that I have almost succeeded in decluttering my mind, I should probably declutter my physical surroundings too… And it gives me an excuse to get myself on Pinterest too – not that an excuse is needed!

Do you have any hints and tips? Could you point me in the direction of some good crafty ideas? I’d love it if you could send me some pins that I might enjoy! http://www.pinterest.com/suzie81speaks

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog, and don’t forget to check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks, and my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/suzie81speaks.

53 thoughts on “Organising the Memories”

  1. There are some really cool ideas on displaying ticket stubs and I’ve recently seen (can’t remember where, possibly Etsy or Not on the Highstreet) that you can scan / email stubs and they’ll print them onto a collaged canvas. https://uk.pinterest.com/explore/ticket-stubs/
    I’m the same, especially with keeping cards for sentimental reasons. They’re a nice little time capsule reminder though 🙂

  2. Material objects especially small ones do allow memories, but the most important are still in your mind and will occur to at times that will surprise you. There are some things I won’t forget even as I have manage to mute them. Once I tried burning the object, it didn’t work. I still reminded of at times and it now includes the attempt to burn it away.

  3. Keep a journal,with pages having the backgrounds and of places as watermark of the tickets you have,n stick them on it,writing some good memory of that place, it would be a great memoir..

  4. I’m the same as you, Suzie – although I’ve moved a lot and got rid of loads of things, I have ticket stubs and cards and bits and piece, all kept in little boxes here and there (I even blogged about one of them). I recently bought one of those display box frames, with a plan to put a bunch of things inside to display properly, and I’ve organised a lot of my ticket stubs into a photo album. One day I think I might do one of those photo book, scan everything in and create a permanent record.

    But for now they linger in boxes and baskets, gathered memories for rainy days 🙂

  5. I’m a journal keeper and tuck them inside the pages. They are lovely memories those little trinkets. When mum died I found several of her boxes, they’ve Ben delightful to go through to.

      • Easily the letters my dad wrote to her from 1944 to 1948. During the war they had been going out 3 months before call ups separated them and in those 3.5 years they had two weekend leaves together! A love affair in correspondence. From 45 to 48 dad was in Palestine before Israels independence so a lot on the politics of the time too.

      • oh my gosh I bet that is fascinating… Those years must have been so difficult – I can’t spend three days away from The Bloke without missing him, never mind three years!

      • I often wondered as a youngster why it took them 3.5 years after he got home to marry but they had to relearn about each other which I can now understand a little. Love flashed then held in abeyance needed to be slow burnt. But it worked and they made 50 plus years before the old man died.

  6. You sound just like me. I love to hold onto little mementos to evoke happy memories. I imagine that many years from now when I’m an old man my grown children will wonder why I have so many curious odds and ends.

  7. I too have tons of bits and pieces. My hubby and I have a VVIB (Very Very Important Box) which was the one big box full of all our important stuff that we collated when we moved house. We still have it though it is close to over flowing. With tickets and bits my hubby has bought a massive A0 clip frame, glued all the tickets to the backing board in a way he was happy with which is now up in our study. It does look good I have to admit, even though I wasn’t keen at the time. A home made ticket collage if you will. Good luck!

  9. I truly believe when we declutter our surroundings, we clear our minds, too. That said… I struggle with this and am exactly like you in this way. It seems silly to keep the trinkets but I can’t bring myself to throw them away. They are memories in the shape of a ticket stub or keychain. 💖

  10. It’s hard to get rid of things that evoke special memories but we can’t live with all the stuff accumulated over our lives. Maybe these will help: continue to photograph everything and file with a caption to identify, then trash or give away most of the stuff. Gather the most interesting or beautiful and display in a memento box on the wall or table. Limit your saved things to what can be put in a single box or drawer. I once saw a coffee table with a glass top built over it but suspended above about 3 – 4 inches so the lower table top could display things, but the upper table top (the glass piece) was clean and usable for books, coffee mugs, etc.

  11. Get a memory box and keep only the most sentimental things in there. Scan any paper based times and keep them in an electronic memory box 🙂

  12. Sounds like me…so many saved mementos, cards, letters; some are in scrapbooks, need to do more. Now, though, I have my parents and grandparents saved things I’m having to sort through. So many memories, I hate to just throw it all away.

  13. Aww, me and the bloke have those little clogs too, one each ^_^ In the simplest form of hoarding – I mean tidying, I recommend scrapbooks, the kind you get for kids where you can just paste stuff onto the thick pages and write in biro next to it, who has the time/money for proper scrapbooking!? Then some of those fancy homeware boxes in decreasing sizes that you can stack and maybe a pin board that’s just for athletic reasons – Oh! That’s where I put the other clog, I’d forgotten, ha!

  15. I love this idea. I have so many little things around that I need to get organized. I’m not a hoarder by no means but some things are just worth keeping 🙂

  16. I truly know how you feel! It can be really difficult to let go of small trinkets that have happy memories. I made quite a few scrap books when I was younger, and although they are lovely to go through now, I don’t look at them very often. I am never sure if I should dump them into the recycling.

    I am similar with old photos that were not quite good enough to put into albums. I feel bad to throw away friend’s faces. I am thinking about buying a scanner, scanning them and then posting the originals to my friends. It’ll be a nice surprise for them, and then they can decide to throw them away if they like, and it won’t matter as I’ll have a copy. At the same time I feel bad if my old photos become someone else’s clutter. Eep!

    • Ooh the thought of my pics that my friends have haha! I keep all my scrap books just because of the memories, and it takes up less space than if it were all separated out…

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