Random query

[sakurazuka_jae]

For how long should one keep old letters

Comments

[_leareth]

I'd keep them. They're interesting pieces of your history and besides, who knows, in today's wired society you might bump into them again :3

[sakurazuka_jae]

A fair (and somewhat scary) point.

Looking at them is kind of weird now. I can't even REMEMBER the last time I wrote an actual letter, as opposed to an email. Postcards, yes. Letters, no.

[dethorats]

Unless they have any particular interest, say a phrase or style of handwriting you think you might want in the future, I'd recycle them. It's kinda fun to stumble on some things that you may not have looked at in half a decade but after a brief chuckle or two, I personally just got rid of anything that didn't hold any emotional or cognitive value. It felt good, actually, to get rid of most of my old papers and letters, like a good sort of life spring-cleaning.

[sakurazuka_jae]

Speaking of handwriting - one of the depressing things about discovering old letters and diaries is to realise just how badly my handwriting has deteriorated over the last *mumble* years. I'd like to blame it on computers, but I'm not sure I can. Seriously though, I wrote so neatly in high school, whereas now... scrawl.

[seidoo_ryuu]

I did this a few years ago; I had a massive stack of old letters that I'd written when I was a kid. I still remembered most of the people I'd written to, but it had mostly been friends and family (I never had an official "pen pal", per se). Anyway, I ended up shredding most of the stack, and keeping a few pieces that had particular sentimental value. So that's what I would suggest: keep the ones that are from treasured friends, and shred the rest. I can appreciate keeping things for the sentimentality, but if you can't remember who sent them...

Just my thoughts on the matter. ^_^

[sakurazuka_jae]

This is what I wound up doing. I've kept probably about 2/3s of the letters, and may weed them again, but there are some familiar names and good memories in the "keep" pile. One hilarious thing was discovering that THREE of the bundles were from one particular friend, who I honestly don't remember corresponding with that much. However it appears in retrospect that we couldn't shut up about anything. Weird. I was expecting there to be a lot of mail from two other people (and there was), but the third-largest correspondent was a surprise.

[ysabet]

I'd toss the ones that have little meaning to you. They're *yours*; if they have no value or validity for you, why should you keep them? Let the ones you can't relate to go and hold on to the ones with meaning.

[sakurazuka_jae]

Good advice, and the option I wound up going with.

Turned out I remembered quite a few people, even some who I'd long since stopped writing too. Some of them however *crickets chirp*.

[sakurazuka_jae]

I prefer to think of it as "efficient". I decided to keep the ones I actually do remember, but the whole stack of "who?" will go.