As moms we are frequently (always) the family historians and keepers of all memorabilia large and small. Photos, report cards, awards, scribbles, first letters, first numbers, more scribbles…I’ve made a deal with myself not to force my kids to need a moving van to haul out all of their school creations when they go off to college. Enjoying keepsakes should be fun, it shouldn’t be a job! Keep too much and suddenly you’ve got a job on your hands. Who really needs another job anyway?
What should you keep and what should you let go?
You should keep:
1) Items that show your child’s progress in school.
2) Creations/cards that your child made for you.
3) Creations that tear at your heartstrings-they can’t all tear at your heart strings though (beep, beep, beep-moving van backing up).
4) Special accomplishments such as awards, ribbons, letters from the teacher.
What should you let go?
1) Force yourself to be selective. Is that creation truly awesome or or there even more awesome keepsakes waiting to be looked at?
2) Get rid of duplicates. Lets say you are looking at a pile of first grade keepsakes. You can keep 20 drawings and know how your darling was drawing in first grade instead of keeping 100 drawings. You still get the “picture” of how they were doing. Again, don’t make it a job to enjoy looking at these special creations.
3) Give creations a ‘home’ so there is a cap on how much you can keep. This keepsake portfolio from Toys to Grow On is a super way to keep keepsakes. It allows you to store keepsakes organized by grade and forces you to choose the best without it being overwhelming.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what to keep and what to let go. Just don’t keep creations out of guilt, kids really don’t want to store all that stuff in their own future home. Most of us just want to reminisce a little bit about what we made as kids. Watch for tomorrow’s post on how to honor kid’s keepsakes since there surly will be plenty that you keep.
