The Good, The Bad, and The Snuggly

By Cyndi Seidler
05/30/06

I don't know what got into me; the other day I pulled out my "keepsakes" box. You would think I had nothing better to do.

This trip down memory lane is something I sometimes do when I'm doing an extensive clean out, and it only happens during a phase of my life when I think it's time to re-evaluate the importance of my past.

It's interesting to see what people keep as valuable memories. One time when I was helping my bi-coastal friend Janet clean out her Los Angeles apartment to consolidate her belongings into her New York apartment, she found things I didn't know anyone her age kept anymore.

While sorting her stuff, Janet's teddy bear from childhood came out of a plastic bag and received a tearful hug. There were many more sentiments to deal with and parting with segments of her past was not easy. But, we got through it, keeping only those reminders that could fit into one box.

Not everyone is able to condense a lifetime of cherished memories into one box though. One client could not part with her memories, and proved the hardship of this task when we were sorting her shoes.

This woman had a lifetime of shoes, literally. She had her first dates shoes, her wedding shoes, her anniversary shoes, the shoes she wore to graduation, and many other special occasion shoes. And, I thought women just had difficulty making room to keep their current shoes.

I have most of my memories in scrapbooks now. I followed the advice of a colleague and had taken pictures of my various keepsake items. Becoming a scrapbooker turned out to be a fun little hobby, one which I try to encourage others to try for their keepsakes. Trouble is, it's another project that often ends up creating another area of clutter if it isn't controlled.

One scrapbooker I know claims she loves scrapbooking. Cheryl is this so-called scrapbooking devotee who never seems to get around to the actual event of scrapbooking. However she had collected enough stuff for the task than any store I've seen stocked with scrapbook merchandise.

As a matter of fact, I helped create a whole section of a room for Cheryl just for this wonderful hobby. She had a work table, wall shelves with box cubbies that held baskets of scrapbook paraphernalia, and drawer organizers for special papers and utensils. It was a scrapbooker's heaven.

When I checked up on Cheryl several months later, I learned that she still had the intention of getting to her projects, but there was a matter of her wedding to tend to, merging two households into one, holding a garage sale, organizing the holiday events, and a few other activities that took her attention elsewhere.

These things happen. And I suppose Cheryl will get to it when her life stops having so many memories happening all at once.

I finished exploring my own keepsake box and ended up with a couple large manila envelopes to store away. The rest mostly consisted of my daughter's drawings and story writings, which ended up in its own envelope in a box I had of daughter-growing-up stuff. Now, I can pass it down to her when she's ready to see her old school photos, report cards, and first pay stub from an acting job she did at the age of six.

I didn't save her security blanket and just hope she never asks.

Copyright 2006 Cyndi Seidler. All Rights Reserved.