Oh those were the days…..I remember when that photo was taken…..Grandma’s china reminds me of those Sunday family dinners together. We have all experienced a feeling of nostalgia that is triggered by a memory, photo or object from your past or the past of long-lost relatives. Our brains are wired such that the smallest memory can invoke great emotions related to an experience or object from our past – or even the pasts of relatives we have never even met. There is a sense of “connectedness”.

Trying to hold on to memories by holding on to an object will not help you relive a moment in time or return you to a special place once visited. The memories are not within the object, but within our hearts. So as we have been going through our minimization of “stuff”, I have had the hardest time with my emotional connection to certain “objects”.

I think I am a fairly rational person. I know that my high school senior class t-shirt will NEVER fit me again. I only remember I have it (30+ years later), when we are moving or reorganizing. How about Grandma’s dishes? They weren’t her special china, but her daily use dishes that I received after she had passed. They are gently wrapped in tissue paper, carefully separated by cardboard and stored in special china storage containers so that they will be safe from breakage. Every time I think I will use them, I decide I don’t want to risk them breaking so they stay tucked away in a closet. But wait, didn’t Grandma use these dishes everyday without the worry of keeping them stored away for special occasions? Wouldn’t it honor her memory better by using them and appreciating them instead of keeping them out of sight?

An extreme minimalist would say to get rid of the t-shirt and donate the dishes to a local charity. Let them have a new life with someone that needs them and will use them as they are intended to be used. These items are taking of space and energy in your life. So, do they add value to my life? Am I willing to hold on to them and other nostalgic items just because they make me feel warm and fuzzy for a day gone by? What about the boxes and boxes of photos that are stacked in a closet with my best intentions of one day sorting them by child and passing them on to my adult children? Or better yet, the baby toys my children (who are now 31, 30 & 28 years old) played with when they were but mere toddlers. They aren’t even collectibles that would bring a pretty penny if purchased by a collector. Ultimately, it is nothing more than irrational sentiment that keeps them tucked away in storage bins taking up space in my garage.

As I said before, I am a rational person and understand that having these things really doesn’t make a difference in my life. So I had to develop a plan of how to deal with breaking the chains of nostalgia. Here is how I evaluated what stays and what goes. First, I ask myself if I can give a new purpose to the object and does it bring a new sense of value to my life? The high school t-shirt? Absolutely not. I took a photo of it, carefully laid out so all the classmates names could be read and the t-shirt is gone. My fond memories of this piece of high school memorabilia was not found in the shirt, but the shirt spirited the memory of great times with friends. I will enjoy the t-shirt now captured electronically in a photo forever without having to hold on to something I don’t use. I now moved on to my Grandmother’s dishes. Using the same evaluation as the t-shirt; I quickly realized that I could get great value from these dishes but not kept stored in a closet as they are now. I am going to honor my Grandmother by using them as part of our daily lives; sharing great meals with family and friends. I am not going to worry about a possible chip or broken plate. They will be used and loved as long as I have them and family to feed.

The one thing I have to share is how I am dealing with all the boxes of photos and keepsake documents. I want to enjoy my photos. I am not a fan of photo albums that just sit on a shelf and collect dust. What I do enjoy are quality video photo frames that scroll through a variety of photos. I have had one in my home for a number of years now. Every time we have friends over, I notice people watching the scrolling pictures. So scanning my photos and documents seemed like the best way to preserve and actually use the photos I have taken over the years. One added benefit to keeping the photos electronically, they are now safe on the cloud and I no longer have to worry about losing them in the event of fire…..which was a situation we were faced with a few years back when a wildfire threatened our home in Utah. Thank goodness, our home was saved and so were the cherished photos in those boxes. I invested in a great scanner that is fast and has a very easy interface program that loads directly to the cloud or to a hard disk. The Doxie Go Plus (http://www.getdoxie.com/) is not the cheapest on the market, but well worth the money. It has saved me countless hours of sorting pictures for albums and has given me piece of mind that I no longer have to worry about space to store the paper copies.

I no longer look at my nostalgic items with the fear that getting rid of them will in any way make me lose the fond memories the item invokes. The memories we cherish are within us not a certain item. Either repurposing the item or donating knowing someone may get more value in their lives by having it, will free up space in your life that can now be filled with something that is more meaningful. Don’t be afraid to let go…..it is just stuff.