Dave & Neat-O: Also I’ve thought it would feel good to write down my recollections about memorobilia (e.g., in a doc on the HD with the photo). That should make it easier to get rid of the physical stuff without feeling quite so guilty. Bring some closure. Unfortunately I haven’t done much of it yet…

I’ll be finishing my clear-out of the garage; that’s a start. We’re about to move to a larger house, mostly because we can’t accommodate visitors well (a problem in DC) and if we continue to try and have 2 adults and 2 children orbiting the galley kitchen, bad things will happen. A lot of our stuff went to storage to simplify the open house experience, and we’ll be filtering the heck out of it as we unpack it - because having open space free of crap will be a serious luxury.

The Wikipedia article on the Collyer brothers has about the same amount of information as the book “The Ghosty Men”. Truely a tale to inspire dejunking!

I’m so glad you mentioned FlyLady.com. I just discovered it a couple of weeks ago and has been such a well of inspiration. It’s a bit housewife-centric, but there is SO much useful information in there, it’s worth wading through anything that my not apply to me specifically.

I’m so glad you mentioned FlyLady.com. I just discovered it a couple of weeks ago and has been such a well of inspiration. It’s a bit housewife-centric, but there is SO much useful information in there, it’s worth wading through anything that may not apply to me specifically.

I say we make it fun. Take all your clutter and put it in a ‘gasoline bucket’ Joe Dirt style… Then, celebrate the 4th properly - by shootin’ Fireballs at it!!

Ownership is a two-way street. You own stuff - and it owns you.

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about memorabilia— stuff that you keep because it reminds you of other times. This is different from keeping things because they might be useful someday. I ask because I have a cubic yard or two of such stuff boxed up in the basement.

Just last night I came across an old copy of a student newspaper that is easily 13 years old. There was nothing really special about it (I had written a letter to the editor). But it was really engrossing to re-recognize all sorts of stuff that I haven’t thought about in 10 years. Names of restaurants, the comic strips, etc. I’m not saying a random newspaper is worth keeping, but it was certainly just as much fun to look at as most keepsake snapshots.

Here’s the issue: How does a person determine where the line is between worthy keepsake and waste of space?

dave: Try scanning or taking photos of memorabilia, then junk the physical stuff. You can still see it if you want, but it no longer takes up space in your home (just on your hard drive).

I just moved from London to San Francisco and got rid of 80% of everything I own - hard, as I’m quite a hoarder.

Two things helped, even if they’re a little odd:

• writing journal entries about memories/feelings as I gave up things I’d hung onto for happy/sad reasons for years

• for things like clothes, books etc that I loved but wouldn’t read/wear again (and that didn’t make it into my two archive boxes of mementoes): I had a small ceremony where I thanked them for the great times and hoped they would be able to help someone else have happy times, and then I put them in the charity bag.

good luck letting go!

I’m a big flylady fan, although I did find the syrupy stuff a bit much. I pretty much abstracted what worked for me from them (e.g., zones, 15-minute cleaning sprints, daily/weekly routines) and then left the rest behind.