3 ways to keep your memorabilia and keepsakes in check

*This post is written by San, Edits Inc's principal consultant*

Two weeks back, I finally made the big-girl step of putting down cold hard cash for a place of my own.  The paperwork is still on its way to completion, and the handover is still a few months away, but the Professional Organizer in me wanted to get a head start on prepping for the eventual move.  

Best advice ever:  start early.  But that's for another post.  In this post, I want to share about dealing with the toughest part of any relocation - handling memorabilia. 

There are several reasons why we find it hard to part with any keepsakes: 

• They are hard to replace - rare or even one-of-a-kind.
  
• They have emotional value. 

But if we do not learn how to keep them in check, they can overwhelm not only our cupboards but our lives and memories too.  In some cases, they may even keep us anchored to our past, unable to create a future that we have envisioned. 

So here are 3 tips for keeping your memorabilia in check: 

1.  Figure out how much space you have and stick to that

Take time to plan how much space you can devote to these items.  Think of it as museum's warehouse - no museum has unlimited storage space and whatever they purchase needs to fit in not only with the goals of the museum, but also within its store room.  

For me, it was three-quarters of the bottom shelf in one of the cupboards (see picture).  This, I feel, would keep the collection sufficient small, yet significant, so I could take out and share with visiting friends if I ever wanted. 

2.  Curate your collection

An abundance of any item devalues it.  Gold, diamond and precious metals/stones are expensive precisely because they are scarce.  When we allow our keepsake collection to proliferate, we end up keeping items that may not even be of significant emotional value.  They may even have been once discarded by someone else or given to us on a whim.  

But when we curate it so that we keep, say, 3 items per year of primary school, we end up with those which are most worth keeping or mean the most to us.  Think of it as a museum deciding which items to show. 

3.  Choose the items to keep, not the items to discard

Very often, we open up a box and then try to pick out items we wish to throw away.  This approach is very ineffective, because of what psychologists call "loss aversion".  To us human beings, the pain of losing 10 dollars is significantly more than the happiness in gaining 10 dollars.  Same amount, but different magnitude of emotions.  Why?  Because we hate to lose! (That explains why I always cried whenever I lost at Monopoly as a kid). 

Instead, take everything out of storage and categorize them as you go along (e.g.  photos, cards, gifts, etc.).  Then comb through the items in each category to decide which to keep.  I promise you'll have an easier time. 

Having been curating my collection every year thus far, I didn't think there'd be things to throw out.  Yet as I handled each item, I realized there were some superfluous ones which I've kept for years, but bore little meaning.  So out to the dumpster they went. 

Moral of the story?  Go through each item, even if you think they don't warrant it. 

Inspired to take action?  Tell me about your story!