Keep or trash?

[misskay]

I recently retired and I'm doing some mega cleaning out and organizing. When in doubt, I'm throwing it out (or donating in some cases). When I retired, I brought home 28 years of collectables from work plus all the additional things I got for retirement. I have framed awards, wooden wall plaques for 5 yr, 10 yr, 15, etc. plus plaques with each new promotion. I also have plaques signed by all my co-workers when I left my last position and with retirement I got letters from all the surviving presidents congratulating me.  This all takes up room and really I don't have any place to display them.  My husband thinks I should frame the letters from the presidents but who actually thinks they are real.  I don't.  Some secretary some where printed them off and stamped them.

So, do I keep this memorabilia or trash it? 

[dw]

You could put them all in photo album so it wouldn't take up too much room. I did this with all my son's awards from high school.

[Deleted]

You could take some pics of them, all displayed, and keep the pics instead of the actual items.

[manygoatsnmore]

I agree with Potsie - I would take pics of the memorabilia and not keep the actual items if you don't really want them.

[ketoriverfarm]

Congratulations on your retirement! You will love it!

[patty]

We recently moved after 38 years in the same house. We got rid of all that kind of memorabilia. I just kept thinking that all the stuff we have will have to be dealt by someone else after our death. It will mean nothing to them. My husband and I actually had a bonfire and read all of our old love letters from 1967 and then burned them. It was our lives and no one will have to go thru it later. Precious memories that was ours alone. Purge!!

[Deleted]

That is what I am doing, taking pictures of sentimental items and getting rid of the actual items. I have saved my letters from my mother, grandmother and aunt. I kept them because I do read them every now and then. Everything else is burned up.

[Deleted]

I vote to take pictures and dispose of it. I look at items and determine if I get any value from them - If not they go in the garbage, get sold, or donated to Goodwill.

[Ozarks Tom]

Rule of thumb around here - if it's less valuable in that space than a canning jar full of food would be, it goes.

[Daniel]

I retired from a crime lab and also taught seminars for over 25 years. Oh the crap I have. It's all boxed up in the attic. I don't want or need all the awards ect. This winter I'm going to get a big fire going and get rid of the crap. I'm thankful I don't have to work a 9 to 5 anyone, don't need the awards and accolades anymore. What the heck am I going to do with such things as 5, 10 15, 20,25,30 year pins from the police department, I din't wear them then and not going to now. DW thinks I should hang on to the stuff, me not so much.

[kawaiitimes]

If you have kids or grandkids who might get a kick out of that stuff, let them rummage through it before you let it go. Particularly police department stuff... It may not be useful to you, but that stuff is a gold mine for kids who do show and tell and kids who think their parent/grandparent is a superhero.

[AD in WNC]

I make earrings out of my Grandpa's Corp of Engineer Service pins. He had two matching pins. I wear them when I particularly miss him.

[feather]

When I was a teen, maybe 13 or 14, I really liked pins and patches, sewed patches on a jacket, and the pins would be fun in a hat.

[Deleted]

Jun 5, 2015 1:33:03 GMT patty said:

We recently moved after 38 years in the same house. We got rid of all that kind of memorabilia. I just kept thinking that all the stuff we have will have to be dealt by someone else after our death. It will mean nothing to them. My husband and I actually had a bonfire and read all of our old love letters from 1967 and then burned them. It was our lives and no one will have to go thru it later. Precious memories that was ours alone. Purge!!

Am the I the only one who read "old love letters from 1967" and had a surge of "awws" and "how romantic"  in my heart, then cringed when I read said love letters were burned? Then again, I probably should stop watching The Notebook and Moulin Rouge again and again and again. 30 times is surely enough times to watch the same movie...

On the sentimental note though, I love mushy gooey emotions in the here and now and try to pour buckets of mushiness on everyone around me as much as I can. But I personally don't believe in keeping memorabilia or keepsakes since like Patty said, the memories serve that purpose. So when you remember those presidents giving you the letters is the keepsake not the award itself? Plus I feel that stuff could only serve to make me sad, yearn for times in the past when I look at it further down the road. Versus say if you kept a diary and wrote about that stuff, that would be a different experience if you read it later and thought back to it. Everyone is different though, this is just my weird approach to memories. Of course I say this when I'm 29, perhaps when I'm 79 I would have wished I had done it differently.