A few of us bloggers are comparing notes on tossing out, cleaning up, zenning our spaces. Must be something to do with the configuration of the stars at the moment you'd think.
I've downsized quite a few times now so apart from books and movies I try not to clutter up too much.
I'm going through boxes of photos and documents and postcards and love notes and thank you letters and am becoming quite ruthless.
It's not an easy job. And quite sad too looking at now-dead faces or the once convivial lineups of family members now shunning me. Where once there was love, etc. And the portraits I took of them - should I toss in the recycling bin? I can barely stand to look at them as it is, for it's like a dagger piercing my heart. Why torture myself? Toss. Move on. They have.
I'm a tough old elder. I can do this.
Now that feels better...or does it?
Right there with you
ReplyDeleteas I go throuth photo's
and children and grandchildren
ask "who is that."
I comment do you want
and they say "not now?"
I went through all the old family photos, from both sides of my family and then Jack's tinful. I scanned and dated & named all the people I had names of. I arranged them in folders. After one of our family reunions, Elly copied all the latest material and added all the old family stuff and put them on discs for each sibling. She used old DVD cases, put a photo of the siblings for the cover and the disc inside had a photo of Daddy & Mammy on their wedding day. Not need to keep the dusty old fading originals.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite ruthless with decluttering. Anything that means little or nothing to me, anything that's just a decades-old memento or souvenir, anything I'm keeping for no obvious reason, out it all goes. I only have two family photos and I feel no need of any more. My mum and sister are in my head and my heart, that's good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteMy criterium is, if it is of any interest to my daughter. If it is meaningless to her, I can toss it out. No need to make it hard on her after I am gone.
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ReplyDeleteEvery Spring we have a binning session plus pruning of files in the cabinet. Every year stuff (new) creeps back.
ReplyDeleteI hedged my bets with the photos and put them on CD. Books and music - no; appreciation cards from when I left work....no. LOL.
And creative groupwork programmes from that time too. I just can't bring myself yet ...it's who I was.
Oh I pity my stepdaughter who has to clear out all this crap when we're both gone.
I have been so lazy about this. There are all those slides to convert, too.
ReplyDeleteLast fall after we moved I decluttered some of my junk only to find out later that I threw out some things I should not have. Dagnabit!
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult letting go of old memories, even the bad ones. Having been five times married, while searching through the piles of old photo prints, I'll occasionally turn up one that still tugs at the heart-strings. The 'what-ifs' creep in: what if we'd stayed together; what if she'd just liked the things I liked; what if I hadn't been working such long hours while we were married...? Or, occasionally, what if I hadn't been so stupid as to marry her in the first place?
ReplyDeleteOne problem with getting older is the store of memories grows ever larger, and harder to relinquish!
I have been thinking about this post as I begin to organize photos of my 4-month old grandson. I miss the days of film when I sent off a roll and got back a packet of photos, not sure how they'd turn out and always surprised with one or two really good shots. I have albums full of my kids at all ages and they would be the thing I would be sure to grab in fire or flood.
ReplyDeleteA special thank you for your recent encouragement to keep up the good fight. I daresay you understand more than most people do and inspire me to keep going.
Mixed, isn't it? But no sense in keeping things that bring pain.
ReplyDelete