I saved one notebook from Real Analysis in grad school, because the lectures were a thing of beauty. The professor gave the most beautiful proofs, and I still like looking at the notes from time to time, even though my profession isn't (directly) related now. I guess it does 'give me joy' in the words of Marie Kondo.
Have a small box of kids' artwork under a bed - I don't think they want it, and they are no longer children. I should review with them about this.
This is a huge issue for me! I am very sentimental and have not only stuff from my kids' childhood but all the stuff I and my mom saved of my own (she died three years ago and I saved it all too).
I literally have posters that we made for my son's high school fencing and band "careers" that I can't throw away (because I loved watching them participate).
I have all my sons' school projects and reports and IEP paperwork. I still have my notebooks from high school and college that have sat in my garage for 15 years and I've never looked at.
My sons couldn't care less about any of this stuff. They are both on the autism spectrum and are very logical and practical but just don't connect with this stuff.
I literally JUST threw away my younger son's karate belts and pinewood derby cars/trophies because I am trying to move to a smaller house and he says he doesn't want them. But it was painful. He's in college now!
I threw a lot of stuff into boxes to be sorted later (in the new house) which I'm going to regret later, I know.
I don't have any advice for you, just that I sympathize with your struggle!!
Would love to hear others' thoughts too.
Oh the pinewood derby cars… I have three of mine and they are close to 50 years old now. My sons have looked at them and wondered about them. I’m not throwing them away; my dad and I worked on them together.
I still have a small child now and struggle to throw away his artwork. I know if I save it, I’ll regret it. If I throw it out, I’ll regret it. There’s no winning when you are sentimental. It disgusts me. At least I’ve learned not to save his homework and schoolwork paper. Art only for now.
My mom saved a bunch, a whole plastic tub worth, and gave it to me as she was decluttering her own house - but I live in a small house and space is sorely needed for everyday things. It was neat to look at - once - but I was never going to "keep looking" at it. I shredded almost all of it and decided to just keep the sentiment - that education was important to her (and to me, I generally liked school), that she was proud of me, that I had worked hard on those papers and for those report card grades. Those ideas live in me, and I don't need the physical items to know it.
My mom saved a bunch of my stuff and my baby book. I look at it from time to time and it doesn’t take up too much space, so store it at the bottom of a drawer.
My mother saved some of my ceramics projects from high school. It was entertaining to find them, but within 6 months, I'd decided to get rid of all of them. The projects I liked best, I'd taken with me to my first adult home, so those were broken long ago.
I'm the person who kept old school projects, initially, but the bankers' box in my closet stopped being fun to browse at some point in grad school and it all went away, along with old trophies. If I stumbled on a box of anything in the garage or Dad's warehouse (please no!), I'd rummage through it to see if a couple memorable items were there, look at those once, and then throw them all away.
I recently found a huge pile - including my Algebra - Trigonometry homework. Took a while figuring out how I did it.
Realized that I somehow I had internalized it & it makes me quite accurate at guesstimating.
But 8th grade me was definitely better.
Have kept that one paper. ( for now )
The rest will go into the sentimental shred pile.
I'm in the middle of writing a memoir, so it's useful and I've kept a lot of it.
I also loved math, and I find having my old math textbooks comforting, even if I don't really look at them often (like once every 5 years).
My mom saved a ton. We recently went through it because she was trying to move. Tossed it all. Well, I did save one creepy art project that gave my mom the creeps. I'm going to mail it to her for Mother's day one of these years.
I scanned anything I thought was funny or cute, mostly because I’m still friends with my grammar school classmates and sometimes I get a kick out of sending them something from second grade.
For my own kids, I keep things in folders (one per school year) until they graduate high school, then THEY can decide if anything in the folder matters. It’s a slight ass pain, the waiting, but it seems fair to me.
ALSO, with regard to my kid’s art: I’ve scanned that also and made it into a photo book for each. They get a kick out of it. Then the art goes buh-bye.
No. I'm older and don't want to leave all that for my family to deal with after I'm gone (Swedish Death Cleaning). It served its purpose at the time, and that time is many decades ago.
It's a mindset for decluttering, from a book of the same name. I think it's very helpful but of course not everyone likes it. I think the older one is, the more it makes sense. We read in this sub all the time of elderly parents who leave an entire hoarded or cluttered house for their family to deal with, and I'm not going to be \*that parent\*.
I have a box full of that kind of stuff waiting for me at my parents house the next time I visit. I really don’t know what I want to do with it. I don’t think I want to keep report cards, but I know there are some creative writing and art assignments in there that might be fun to look at. I have a school memory book already with some pictures and assignments that I do honestly enjoy having around to look at now and then.
I do. I have stories I wrote and pictures I drew that my mom saved. I'm almost 50 and still look at it from time to time. I keep the stuff I like. I have a few folders. I'm extremely sentimental and the older I get the more i long for my childhood.
I'm in my 50's and I'm clearing out my mom's condo; she kept a lot of things I would not have kept if she asked but she did keep a few things that I appreciate.
If she would have asked me 20 years ago to go thru my things I think I would have kept the same things as I kept now; we had a lot of paper in Jr high & high school, college had a lot of floppy disks 😁
Yes but not exactly; I like showing my kids & grandkids my thoughts and ideas; I kinda wanna to redo them now but me now was not me then, writing or experience. I can't show them the papers on the floppies.
I kept 2 pieces of art I made in my senior year that was placed in an art show. I have one framed, the other is with the rest of my art. There are a couple things I’d like, if they are still around, but only to see them again. All the other stuff I’ve trashed/recycled.. however… my college notebooks… those are a different declutter item.
My parents and my husbands parents gave us each a big plastic tub with all that stuff. We looked through it once and were like oh cool. Now we have two big bins we don’t know what to do with and we feel bad throwing out. I wish my parents kept it cause it’s more for them than me.
My parents recently decluttered this stuff out of their house and into mine. They were selective in what they saved, it is all organized, and my kids have been enjoying the comparisons between their work and mine at the same ages.
Overall, it's been neat, but I wouldn't say it's a must-have. I'll probably keep it as long as my kids get a kick out of it. But then again, I would have been fine without it.
Just toss it, unless you are a good artist or writer. You won’t want much else. I think I kept one poem I wrote 65 years ago, and illustrated. I have no idea where it currently is!
Yea i do actually. About once a year i go through my memory box
I saved one notebook from Real Analysis in grad school, because the lectures were a thing of beauty. The professor gave the most beautiful proofs, and I still like looking at the notes from time to time, even though my profession isn't (directly) related now. I guess it does 'give me joy' in the words of Marie Kondo. Have a small box of kids' artwork under a bed - I don't think they want it, and they are no longer children. I should review with them about this.
This is a huge issue for me! I am very sentimental and have not only stuff from my kids' childhood but all the stuff I and my mom saved of my own (she died three years ago and I saved it all too). I literally have posters that we made for my son's high school fencing and band "careers" that I can't throw away (because I loved watching them participate). I have all my sons' school projects and reports and IEP paperwork. I still have my notebooks from high school and college that have sat in my garage for 15 years and I've never looked at. My sons couldn't care less about any of this stuff. They are both on the autism spectrum and are very logical and practical but just don't connect with this stuff. I literally JUST threw away my younger son's karate belts and pinewood derby cars/trophies because I am trying to move to a smaller house and he says he doesn't want them. But it was painful. He's in college now! I threw a lot of stuff into boxes to be sorted later (in the new house) which I'm going to regret later, I know. I don't have any advice for you, just that I sympathize with your struggle!! Would love to hear others' thoughts too.
Oh the pinewood derby cars… I have three of mine and they are close to 50 years old now. My sons have looked at them and wondered about them. I’m not throwing them away; my dad and I worked on them together. I still have a small child now and struggle to throw away his artwork. I know if I save it, I’ll regret it. If I throw it out, I’ll regret it. There’s no winning when you are sentimental. It disgusts me. At least I’ve learned not to save his homework and schoolwork paper. Art only for now.
It's a trip, isn't it? Glad you are enjoying your Pinewood memories!
My mom saved a bunch, a whole plastic tub worth, and gave it to me as she was decluttering her own house - but I live in a small house and space is sorely needed for everyday things. It was neat to look at - once - but I was never going to "keep looking" at it. I shredded almost all of it and decided to just keep the sentiment - that education was important to her (and to me, I generally liked school), that she was proud of me, that I had worked hard on those papers and for those report card grades. Those ideas live in me, and I don't need the physical items to know it.
No. Or: only in the context of saying “oh yeah, I remember doing that” and then getting rid of it.
My mom saved a bunch of my stuff and my baby book. I look at it from time to time and it doesn’t take up too much space, so store it at the bottom of a drawer.
My mother saved some of my ceramics projects from high school. It was entertaining to find them, but within 6 months, I'd decided to get rid of all of them. The projects I liked best, I'd taken with me to my first adult home, so those were broken long ago. I'm the person who kept old school projects, initially, but the bankers' box in my closet stopped being fun to browse at some point in grad school and it all went away, along with old trophies. If I stumbled on a box of anything in the garage or Dad's warehouse (please no!), I'd rummage through it to see if a couple memorable items were there, look at those once, and then throw them all away.
I recently found a huge pile - including my Algebra - Trigonometry homework. Took a while figuring out how I did it. Realized that I somehow I had internalized it & it makes me quite accurate at guesstimating. But 8th grade me was definitely better. Have kept that one paper. ( for now ) The rest will go into the sentimental shred pile.
I'm in the middle of writing a memoir, so it's useful and I've kept a lot of it. I also loved math, and I find having my old math textbooks comforting, even if I don't really look at them often (like once every 5 years).
no.
I have gone through that box maybe twice in thirty years.
My mom saved a ton. We recently went through it because she was trying to move. Tossed it all. Well, I did save one creepy art project that gave my mom the creeps. I'm going to mail it to her for Mother's day one of these years.
I scanned anything I thought was funny or cute, mostly because I’m still friends with my grammar school classmates and sometimes I get a kick out of sending them something from second grade. For my own kids, I keep things in folders (one per school year) until they graduate high school, then THEY can decide if anything in the folder matters. It’s a slight ass pain, the waiting, but it seems fair to me. ALSO, with regard to my kid’s art: I’ve scanned that also and made it into a photo book for each. They get a kick out of it. Then the art goes buh-bye.
No. I'm older and don't want to leave all that for my family to deal with after I'm gone (Swedish Death Cleaning). It served its purpose at the time, and that time is many decades ago.
I had to look up Swedish Death Cleaning
It's a mindset for decluttering, from a book of the same name. I think it's very helpful but of course not everyone likes it. I think the older one is, the more it makes sense. We read in this sub all the time of elderly parents who leave an entire hoarded or cluttered house for their family to deal with, and I'm not going to be \*that parent\*.
Yes I understand. Feel the same way after cleaning out my parents house where they lived for 40 years.
No. It's been sitting in boxes untouched for decades. I need to throw it out
I have a box full of that kind of stuff waiting for me at my parents house the next time I visit. I really don’t know what I want to do with it. I don’t think I want to keep report cards, but I know there are some creative writing and art assignments in there that might be fun to look at. I have a school memory book already with some pictures and assignments that I do honestly enjoy having around to look at now and then.
No, I got rid of it all (through graduate school) decades ago and have never regretted it. I saved my printed diplomas and nothing else.
Only my cute projects but never the textbooks or papers.
I do. I have stories I wrote and pictures I drew that my mom saved. I'm almost 50 and still look at it from time to time. I keep the stuff I like. I have a few folders. I'm extremely sentimental and the older I get the more i long for my childhood.
I'm in my 50's and I'm clearing out my mom's condo; she kept a lot of things I would not have kept if she asked but she did keep a few things that I appreciate. If she would have asked me 20 years ago to go thru my things I think I would have kept the same things as I kept now; we had a lot of paper in Jr high & high school, college had a lot of floppy disks 😁
This is helpful. So you actually like the papers she saved. No one else so far has this perspectives in the thread.
Some of the paper she kept were schedules & grad programs; she didn't go to my graduations so it's kinda nice having it at my 40 year reunions?
Yes but not exactly; I like showing my kids & grandkids my thoughts and ideas; I kinda wanna to redo them now but me now was not me then, writing or experience. I can't show them the papers on the floppies.
Why can’t you show them the papers?
I don't have a pc / machine that reads 1980's, 1990's floppy disks, 5.25 & 3.5 inch.
I kept 2 pieces of art I made in my senior year that was placed in an art show. I have one framed, the other is with the rest of my art. There are a couple things I’d like, if they are still around, but only to see them again. All the other stuff I’ve trashed/recycled.. however… my college notebooks… those are a different declutter item.
Nope. Look at local laws, and if you can, have a bonfire and weenie roast. Let those essays serve a purpose!
My parents and my husbands parents gave us each a big plastic tub with all that stuff. We looked through it once and were like oh cool. Now we have two big bins we don’t know what to do with and we feel bad throwing out. I wish my parents kept it cause it’s more for them than me.
My parents recently decluttered this stuff out of their house and into mine. They were selective in what they saved, it is all organized, and my kids have been enjoying the comparisons between their work and mine at the same ages. Overall, it's been neat, but I wouldn't say it's a must-have. I'll probably keep it as long as my kids get a kick out of it. But then again, I would have been fine without it.
Just toss it, unless you are a good artist or writer. You won’t want much else. I think I kept one poem I wrote 65 years ago, and illustrated. I have no idea where it currently is!