Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [36]
You do not need to keep a physical archive of every significant image that comes into your life. You may want to look at things later, though. You can take a picture, back up the digital copy, and get rid of paper stacks. On Flickr (and on most photo sites), it is easy to collect things into sets. You can even get a little book printed with those images. A stack of every drawing your kid made this year might be a bit much to keep, but a yearbook of your favorites along with other photos of your kid from that time might be one of the most wonderful souvenirs you have. You can supplement this with a rotating art show. Get one of those easy-to-open box frames. You’ll be able to add in new pieces stacked up in front of the older pieces and keep the originals of your favorites—up to a manageable point.
Condense all that stuff into the essence of what you value about it.
Suiting to yourself now
Nurse and counselor Julie Lanoie told a sweet story in her Downsize Challenge blog. Her elderly grandfather had several old suits—now never worn—that a lifelong friend personally tailored for him years ago. She had one of them made into a shoulder bag he can use every day to keep track of the few things he currently needs to carry. Lanoie asked her readers the great question, “What could you do with the beloved things that no longer suit you in their current form?” When I shared this story in the Discardian Facebook community, member Ellen Scott Grable told us that she turns her old cashmere sweaters into throw pillows and gives them as enthusiastically received gifts.
Do you want to be the archivist of this?
When it comes to family memories, as a genealogist I understand the import of keeping old photos; however, if they have no indication of who they are—and believe me, we've found many photos of friends and neighbors to whom we are not related among the past century of old family pictures—they are going to be of limited use. Definitely try to find a home within the family, take a good digital photo of the original picture and circulate it by email to all who you think might be related and let someone claim the original (or perhaps identify the subjects, which might change your feelings for it), but you are not required to hold onto things for posterity.
That's a controversial position, I know, but if you don't want to maintain the family archive, let that fact be known so someone who does actively engage with these items and feels an obligation to them can take them. Most families have people on both ends of this spectrum. If you don't really care about these objects, you're not going to take great care of them, so get them to a more appropriate home. If no one in your family wants them, or you're the last of your line (as I am on my father's side), you can offer them out to the wider world. It's getting easier and easier to take a look on Geni.com, Ancestry.com, or similar sites and see if you can find some distant cousin who'll be thrilled to get a box of old photos or letters for their genealogy project.
Digitally preserving your memory
Memories are easier to digitize than you might think. Start a blog (well-established hosted services like TypePad and Blogger are very good) and write about why the object matters to you and of what it reminds you. Take digital photos or scan flat things, and put the pictures and the stories up on your website. My friend, software engineer and program manager Lilly Tao, did a great project like this for all her old t-shirts. By putting souvenirs