Let’s face it, we all probably have way too much stuff. Well, at least I know we do. We are packrats. My husband is what I call a functional packrat (FP).  I, on the other hand, am a sentimental packrat (SR).

FP’s think that they need to hold on to things because the item in question MAY have a purpose in the future. Even things that have sat untouched for over a decade are given pardons because of their potential value. This drives me insane, but I have my own issues to address.

As an SP, I hold on to things because of a memory the items may conjure up. Once, maybe twice a year, I go through my boxes of stuff and smile as I see all of the archived items. I keep my old pom poms from high school because they helped define my teenage years, for example.

Though I’m still trying to break my husband of his pack-ratting (yes, it is a verb), I have come up with a solution to help all of us sentimental fools! Get out your digital cameras and take photographs of some of your things. Then, you can say goodbye to them and the actual item doesn’t take up any physical space in your life.   Now, you can browse through pictures for years to come to remember your special items. This may not work on everything, but here’s an example of how I used it…

As a child, I loved to collect stuffed animals. Though most found their way to new homes via trash, Good Will, or garage sales, a few remain. They have weathered a lot of playtime, some sleeptime, and many, many years. They are way too old and mangy to even think about passing them on to my kids, yet they have special meaning to me. They just sit in boxes throughout the year… until now. Now, I have a nice photo to look at should I ever want to reminisce about their special memories, but I also have the space they were occupying.

Here are 2 of my very old favorites…   PS… I’m keeping the pom poms!!!