Mind Your Memorabilia
By Jean Marie Herron
Have you ever noticed that the longer the length of time we know our intimate loved ones, the more memorabilia we save? Is your basement or attic filled with photos, home movies, meaningful books, children's artwork/schoolwork, sentimental items inherited from family members who have passed?
You're not alone!
As a professional organizer, I'd like to start with the advice of Stephen R. Covey, "Start with the end in mind" from his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. So if you too have a category of items that yank at your heartstrings, how are you going to organize them so they are protected, respected and convenient for traveling down memory lane?
I'll give an example of this from my own house starting with the end in mind. Sometimes, I even ask myself when holding a possession, "What is the life expectancy of this item; how will I give it a proper home based on how long I believe I'm going to own it?"
When my children started preschool and then primary school I noticed that I was saving each child's professional school picture. To add to this, they played sports, sometimes three a year and I was also buying these photographs as well. At the end of a school year I had 4 sets of school-related photos. Multiply that times two children and I had 8 sets. I realized that if I averaged this through 12th grade I'd have 96 professional pictures. Now I know the sports pictures will decrease but they will probably be replaced by family portraits and photos for events such as Communions. I figured I needed a "system" (Saving You Space, Time, Energy & Money) to house each year's worth of photographs.
My solution was to purchase an accordion folder, which is photo-safe through Creative Memories. In this accordion folder are individual sections so I labeled each tabbed section for one school year. Every time I get a new set of pictures, I place the ones I want into the accordion and either give away the rest to loved ones or update frames I have around the house. That's it, that's my system and those are the steps I take to ensure that I have a picture of my daughter and son in each grade as they grow so I can watch the transition. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do quite yet when 12th grade ends. But I'll cross that bridge at graduation and figure our my next end in mind...
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At POSSE Partners, LLC (Professional Organizing Solutions Serving Everyone) we cater to homeowners who want one-on-one help with their organizing endeavors whether it's their space, papers or time. Besides transferring these organizing skills to our clients, we also hold organizing classes called Clutter Corrals, have a monthly forum for supporting each other called POSSE's Pen and we also give organizing presentations as well. To learn more about the author and owner, Jean Marie Herron, and sign up for her free newsletter go to www.POSSEPartnersLLC.com.
