Paper, Paper, Everywhere!
Woman in the Middle | August 29, 2015In that organizing book I am using for a kick in the pants to get some things cleaned out around here, an order is given which Marie Kondo recommends you clean out things. There is a reason why that particular order is recommended. Clothes are first because those are the easest for people to go through, sort,and get rid of. That gives you confidence to move on to books, then papers, then all that assosted crap stuff we all have and, finally, when you are just full of confidence, have an understanding of what you want to keep and toss, and brimming with the zeal of cleaning out your life, you attack the hardest category of all, mementos. The author fully admits that memntoes are hard. Boy oh boy, is she both right and wrong about that!
What she is right about is that mementoes are hard. What she is wrong about is the lack of ackowldgement that mementoes will be scattered throughout those other categories.
I can see why I didn’t go through all the papers in the desk and file drawers before. All those papers are just littered, JUST LITTERED, with what I like to think of as “memento bombs.” Gee, what is in this file? EEEK! A check with my mother’s signature on it! The grant deed for the house we were living in when I was going to high school! The receipt of my mother’s donations to the church we attended for many years that Hubby and I married in that is now closed! Help!
All of these bring good memories. Then comes the agony of tossing it into the trash. Guess what? Not all of it is going into the trash. I just can’t do it and even a Japanese woman with a whip and an organizing book can’t make me do it.
That being said, a lot of it is going into the recycling bin or the to be shred pile. I know I will be happy to have it gone and to never have to deal with these memento bombs again. The rest, well, maybe I will be able to get rid of them at a future date….
I don’t blame you for not wanting to throw away those mementos. I have some some cards and letters from decades ago that lift my spirits whenever I read them.