Childhood Photos

I'm working on keepsakes or memorabilia this month. I'm not super thrilled with it, just because it is hard! It's not that it is entirely hard to decide what should go, but the actual tossing in the trash is so final! Which makes the deciding just a bit harder than the average decluttering. Most of the things we declutter can be bought again, but keepsakes often can't.

I pulled out an envelope of photos from my memorabilia bin tonight. I seriously just opened the bin and pulled something out! Turns out it was primarily photos from childhood. Professional photos primarily. Baby. Elementary class photos (groups of kids I don't remember, although many look familiar). School photos from EVERY year. In nearly every possible size. There were some family photos. Photos from when I was in ballet and tap. And then some very hilarious candids. Some where of me, others taken by me.

I brought the photos out and had some good laughs with my oldest daughter. The expressions are priceless. And the outfits from the 1970's and 1980's are quite amusing.  The saving of keepsakes for those moments of laughter can be worth it if you have the space.

In the end I made four piles of photos.

Five candids to give to my sister.

A pile to toss, primarily duplicates of those so many school photos. I really don't need EVERY size at this point. We do have scanning and printing capabilities now. I'm also tossing most of the dance photos. They really just don't make me look good. I kept two since I don't want that time to be entirely forgotten.

A pile of photos to keep. Many baby photos, family photos and some pretty good candids. I'm very happy with the size of this pile, probably less than half the of all the photos in the original envelope, but plenty to keep.

And finally, I made a stack of the group photos from elementary school. They don't take up much room, but I really wonder if I should keep them. We noticed that many of them had a clock in the background so we could see what time of day the photo was taken! And many of them I'm in the back row...so only visible by torso up. It is sort of neat to see the teachers. So this the one pile I'm considering for now.

It feels good to have made some progress. I haven't actually tossed the photos I'm tossing yet. That will be the hardest part! But I think I can do it. I'll update when it is official here or on Organized Friends Facebook page.