how does anyone make decisions about the things collected as memories--presents, decoration, keepsakes--when the memories are no longer current
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I'm working on this very problem right now. Painful but very necessary. There's been a box sitting in the corner of my living room since I moved to DC 2 years ago. It's stuff, mostly gifts, that I moved up here from Nashville. I figure, if I never missed them in 2 years, I don't need to move them to Texas, no matter how much I like the people who gave me the stuff. Yeesh.
after a day spent basement-cleaningomnia_mutanturAugust 5 2007, 21:54:08 UTC
We're trying to decide what to throw away and what to keep, and I feel guilty/pleased every time he gets rid of something from his first marriage.
I try to find an internal poignancy meter, and anything that doesn't register, can go. Unless I just plain like it, or it gives me joy when I pack/unpack it.
Also, if I can tell it's unhealthy I try to let it go. I miss some of the journals/keepsakes from when I was a suicidal drunk, but it's probably best that I allow the mercy of a cloudy memory to swallow those days.
i don't know. i look at the boxes and think, this time i can be ruthless. i've had a easier time with the 2d things [papers, letters, photos] of late, by scanning them and getting rid of the originals. and've *thought i could do similar with the 3d ones...take pictures and then get rid of 'em...but every time i hold those bits, they end up getting repacked.
the other thought, tho, is to redefine them; make them into something new....
I am in the process of making that decision right now. I think it really depends on what I can make out of keepsakes: if I look at something and feel kind of *numb* or ambivalent about it, I've been tossing them.
I am currently jettisoning all of my crap from when I was married and a great deal of other crap. On the other hand: never ever ever throw away old journals. And I have 2 boxes of those.
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I try to find an internal poignancy meter, and anything that doesn't register, can go. Unless I just plain like it, or it gives me joy when I pack/unpack it.
Also, if I can tell it's unhealthy I try to let it go. I miss some of the journals/keepsakes from when I was a suicidal drunk, but it's probably best that I allow the mercy of a cloudy memory to swallow those days.
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the other thought, tho, is to redefine them; make them into something new....
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I am currently jettisoning all of my crap from when I was married and a great deal of other crap. On the other hand: never ever ever throw away old journals. And I have 2 boxes of those.
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