Sentimental

The last time I packed up and moved, I was nine years old. So I really haven't had much reason to meticulously go through all of my things to pare down the things I own and decide what things are worth keeping. Now, as I'm slowly but surely getting my things packed up in preparation for moving in with a husband on January 3rd, some of the things that I come across that have built up in my closets and drawers bring distant memories and smiles. I cleaned out my jewelry box, making sure to keep only the things that I will still actually wear, and laughed out loud to find that I was still holding on to a dalmation puppy dog bracelet that I was given when I was ten or eleven. I found a scrapbook that I had started when I was only twelve or thirteen, and I was confused a little at a few of the trinkets that I had apparently regarded as "sentimental" such as candy wrappers that I glued to the pages of the book. It were those parts of the book that were super easy for me to give up, but when I got to the part of the scrap book that had all the fun letters from my best friend as a kid or all the cards and emails I received after my traumatic ski accident when I was eleven, I was so hesitant to throw those things out. And then I came to the part of the scrapbook where I kept all the stories that I had written before I was a teenager. I sat right down and read through one and remembered the pride I had taken in my written "works of art," the way I had believed with all my heart that my books would become famous novels and that Oprah or Rosie O'Donnell would ask me to be on their talk shows to talk about the novel I had published at such a young age. The stories now are completely laugh worthy to me...

But those of you who have had to go through old memories of yours to decide what to keep and what to throw, what are your guidelines? I'm realizing that if I tried to keep every card or souvenir I'm sentimental about, I'm going to have three or four boxes full of "memories" that I hardly ever dig into in my new one bedroom apartment that's already gonna be begging for free space. Thankfully my mom said she felt sentimental enough about the ski accident cards and my stories to keep them at her house, but still I have boxes of sentiments that are only going to keep growing, and I think I'm gonna need to let some of them go. If any of you have any advice or encouragement when it comes to the issue of saving or throwing, please comment!