Do you have a stash of “feel good” items in your home, that you pull out when you’ve had a rough day?
It is only human for us to connect with items that bring back positive memories for us. Whether those items are a blanket, stuffed animal or pillow from our childhood, or pictures, collectables or papers; to keep these items is necessary sometimes to hold on and re-cement the memories they invoke.
But how many of us hold on to too much that brings back memories of a different time? A garment we could once fit into, a card that some wrote a note in that touched your heart, a school paper or piece of artwork? Sometimes when we hit the different stages in life we want and need to look back on what once was; in order to move forward with what has come to be. For some, keeping these items keeps the memories alive.
This is understandable, yet my experience has shown me that many people dwell on the past rather than facing the future. Hanging on to some of these items clutter their home with what once was instead of who they are now.
One of the biggest transitions a person makes is in their late teens early 20s. When you move out of your parents home and into your own. At this point most people have very little to call their own and most of what they do have is what they have collected from their years at home with their parents. School papers, music, clothing, keepsakes... all things that don’t necessarily apply to their new life, yet add comfort to their new home. Help your child prepare for this transition in life by...
Encourage safe keeping.
(Try this with your children, even if you haven’t done it yet yourself.)
Provide each child with their own keepsake box. You can start with even just a show box if that is all you have. I recommend over time investing in your box or even a basket. As a child grows, their box may grow a little, but don’t let it exceed a 16”x16” square. Each box should have a decent lid and a way to secure the lid to keep the items inside safe.
Teach your child that they get to choose what they want to keep in the box. If it is a rock, or rocks then so be it. But when they find something new to put in the box, they need to get rid of something old to make room. This teaches children to assign value to their belongings and to respect them for posterity.
When your child is very young, perhaps an infant, you may want to save blankets or favorite toys, pictures, shoes, an outfit or two. These are items that go in your box, not your child’s. The point of a keepsake box is to preserve objects that invoke a memory to the individual yet set limits on how much you keep at a time.
On an emotional day you can pull out your keepsake box full of positive memories and immediately feel better about who you were in the past and get your bearings on where the future will take you.
Bergstrom, of Littlefork, is a professional organizer and consultant.
