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What to do with all the
special little mementos from trips, school play programs with your
child's name on them, playbills and the like? Well, a lot of people
have these things scattered around their home, stuffed in a drawer here
and there and in other random places. If they wanted to locate
something from a particular trip they would have a hard time finding
it.
The solution is simple. Purchase two good-sized storage containers
with well-fitting lids. I prefer clear boxes for general keepsake, as
you can see at a glance exactly what's inside, and an archival
quality box for paper for each family member. Label one
"Keepsake" and the other "Paper Keepsake" and if
possible, keep each family member's personal boxes in a closet in
their room so they can easily add items or take them out to look at.
From now on, whenever you find something that is either sentimental
(but you don't want or need to have it on display) or a memento from
a trip, etc., place the items straight into your keepsake box. It's
that easy!
Go around the house and collect anything that could be considered a
keepsake item and put these in the appropriate box. Ask yourself as
you are doing this - "Do I truly love this?",
"Is it worthy of taking up a spot in my keepsake box?" ,
"Am I really sentimentally attached to this item?".
Anything that does not fall into these categories should be put into
a "donate" box.
What I like to do with paper mementos from trips is place them in a
Ziploc bag upon my return, and mark on the front something like
"Australia 2008" for example and store them away like that.
Then, down the road, if I want to refer to something, I just pull out
the pertinent bag, knowing that the information I want will be
inside.
With children, have folders that are clearly marked by grade level
and year, and restrict yourself to keeping only what will fit in ONE
folder for each year. You only need a sampling of your child's
schoolwork, not every single doodle they scribbled on a piece of
paper. Believe me, they will not care later in life if you threw
something out.
One guideline would be to keep papers that they have written that
have a personal touch such as stories or poems, that kind of thing.
Other papers you might want to keep are grade cards and awards.
If it is hard for you to part with your kid's artwork, consider
keeping and framing the best and then taking photographs of anything
else and then transferring them to a CD or DVD.
From now on this system should be easy for each family member and
will also help them enjoy a trip down memory lane whenever they feel
like it.
HAPPY JUNE!!!
Merri
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