All the memories, none of the clutter

My little friend GC drew me a picture recently, a purple unicorn. I'm not sure if that is a rainbow behind it or a colorful bushy tail. :-) But I'm thrilled she thought of me as the person she wanted to give it to!

Maybe you, like me, tend to forever hold onto objects that hold memories. Open your closet, and boxes of them will fall upon you. You save your child's drawings, I save my dog's outgrown cute clothes. Christmas cards, birthday cards, wrapping paper, even furniture that belonged to someone special, even if you have no room for them, are stored where you have no way to look at them often.

I am on a mission to turn down my sentimentality just a notch and declutter my life.

I'm scanning paper memories (like greeting cards, notes and pre-digital era photos), and photographing things I no longer want to store -- yet want to remember. Everything is saved to my computer (which is backed up to make sure my memories can survive a computer crash). Then I can then throw away the actual object without feeling that I've lost an important memory. When a wave of nostalgia (or forgetfulness) hits, I can just crank up my computer and watch a slideshow of the things that are meaningful to me.

Will I save anything in its original form? Sure, I'll save a few things. But if feels so good to lighten the load. You ought to give it a try!