Wedding & Baby Shower Cards

[NJGIRL]

First let me say that I am not a keeper. The minute we are not using something in my house it gets sold or donated. My closets are not overflowing and I don't have a lot of "stuff" in my house. I prefer a minimalistic home.

We may be moving after my son is out of college and my husband retires (6 or 7 years from now)and I am further looking at downsizing some of the few things I did keep throughout the years.

So here is my question to everyone.

I have a whole Rubbermaid box of wedding, shower, baby shower, etc cards that I kept. In that same box are a few newspaper headlines like Sept 11th, when we went to war with Iraq the first time etc. What would you do with them? As I am getting older I see the need to keep things less and less but I am not sure if I will regret it if I toss everything away.

I only have 1 child and not sure if I would want to burden him with these "treasurers" later in life. Besides he is already getting about 20 photo albums of pictures from our travels and other family events.

[princessgirls]

Just my opinion... if it's only one box keep it. It's not like it's a lot of boxes and piles of stuff. It sounds like you have it neatly organized.

I have a whole "Hope chest" full of that kind of stuff, and even the covers of the paper and magazines from 9/11. You know, we should keep that stuff, for the future generation, they should have an idea of how horrible that time really was.

The wedding cards...sigh....many of those are just sentimental. Some have passed away, as we have been married 18 years, and I just can't recycle them....

Julie

[MNNHFLTX]

I can relate to your dilemma, Rita. I am not a "keeper" either, mostly due to the fact that my husband and I have moved frequently through the years and wanted to tow as little as possible to our new homes. What I do keep, however, tend to be more of a sentimental nature than materialistic. This is especially true of anything having to do with my son's childhood years. I am a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have plastic shoeboxes for items from each year of gradeschool and one each for junior high and college. They sit on a shelf in his closet and I know that I have to go through them some day soon and consolidate into one keepsake box. Honestly, it makes me laugh when I walk in the closet and see what a emotional fool I am.

Anyway, I've been going through a lot of my "sentinmental" stuff and this is what I did to cut back. I got two decorative boxes, one for my son and husband and one for everything else. Most of the cards from husband and son I kept, along with other treasured items (My son can decide what to do with them after I go!). In the other box I kept a card or two from all the special people in my life, as well as an item or two from our travels and a few pertinent front pages (Sept 11th, Columbia, the 2004 Hurricane Season). I kept all of the letters I had from my mom and dad because reading them makes me feel like I'm talking to them again (they have both passed). I got rid of a lot of stuff and freed up extra space, and it wasn't as difficult because I kept those token items. I'm sure that's what I'll do with my son's school stuff eventually.

Maybe just keeping a few special items will make it easier for you to get rid of the rest?

[1DisneyNut]

I'm definitely not a keeper. When I get those cards, even Christmas cards, I look at them when going through the mail and then straight in the garbage they go. Every once in a while, I will lay one on my desk because it has a date I need to remember but then it gets covered up with documents and at some point a few weeks later I throw it away when cleaning my desk off.

An idea I can suggest to you though that I use for some things I think I might want to look at later is to use a smartphone scanner app or take a digital picture and save it to your computer. I have an app called camscanner that I make digital copies of things I think I might want or need later.

[PirateLover]

I'm the opposite- I keep way too much! But this is right up my alley because I've spent the past year or so thinking of different ways to store my items so that I can actually enjoy them from time to time when I pull them out rather than sifting through a box of unorganized ephemera each time. My solution for special cards and playbills was to get small 1 inch binders and pages, available at any office supply store. This way all of the items are in a book, similar to an album, which makes them easy to flip through and pull out if you want to look at something in particular.

[NJGIRL]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I am planning on pulling out the box this weekend so I will let everyone know how it went.

[disney obsessed]

Hi.

I work in the senior living field. Throw everything away! I dont want to sound harsh but only keep a few things to pass on, they are really only important to you. Your kids will just end up feeling guilty about getting rid of it and its often a huge burden on them.