[Organize It All Series] Part II: Photos & Memorabilia

This is the second of a five part series of posts on “Organizing It All!”

Here, I will provide you with some useful tips and suggestions on how to deal with specific spaces in your home, managing and preventing clutter, and most of all… getting rid of it. Sometimes you need just a quick fix or an easy tip to get things going…If you missed out on previous posts you can find Part I here on our blog… Enjoy.

ORGANIZING SERIES PART TWO: Photos and Memorabilia. 
Photos and memorabilia can be very difficult to decide what is important enough to keep and what you should get rid of. Most of the time we feel guilty if we get rid of something that is sentimental. Here are some great ways to navigate those decisions:

• Making time – unfortunately, this type of project takes dedicated time. Depending on your urgency will depend on the best method to getting the job done. A couple of options:
  • Hiring help can be a quick and easy way to get the project done fast. Professionals know what they are doing and can expedite the process, however, it does come at a price.
  • DIY or do it yourself is one way, but you need to be ruthless about setting your schedule and making the time to review and decide on all photos. If you don’t have a deadline and just want to get it done, we recommend setting a timeline or goals to the entire project.
• Decision making – Sentimental things can be more challenging than day to day clutter. Take pictures of specific items and make a photo book to capture the memories or events, rather than keep all the mementos. A nice book of your Matchbox car collection can be priceless!
• Photographs – Throw out the low hanging fruit. Things like duplicates, anything out of focus, people who you don’t know or like, scenery (only save the best shots, the Eiffel Tower- you don’t need those) all can go. Scenery photos, unless it’s a a super special shot, can always be found on the internet.
• Cards– only keep the ones that have real meaning. My example:  cards from my mother that just say Love, Mom, go in the trash,  anything that says that I am the best daughter in the whole wide world or has a special message gets kept.
• Kids art– only keep what really speaks to your child’s personality, the best of the best. You aren’t doing your kids a favors by keeping everything. They usually don’t want it when they get older, I see this constantly. I recommend to my clients to keep the best things that their kids write that really speak to who they are. A report on the revolutionary war maybe not, poems maybe.
• Vacation Souvenirs– photograph those items and put them into books from your trips along with  your photos, think along the lines of a scrapbook.

In the end, your end result is to have photos you can access, mementos that you can enjoy and records that your family will appreciate long past your lifetime. It’s good to remember that memorabilia can sometimes bring up negative thoughts or events should not be kept. Why do that to yourself?

Part three will address Getting Rid of Clutter… are you ready?