Getting Ready to Hit the Road: Purging What You Own: Part 3

But, what about the memories?

You sit, holding in your hand that crayon drawing your son did at a restaurant on the back of a white paper placemat.  It's just one of hundreds of items you will go through and have to make a decision about; Yes/No Stay/Go?   No easier than the tooth-pick tower that your daughter has told you for ten years to throw away.  Or, the little note your child wrote to you...i luvs yow... written on a scrap of paper 13 years ago.  How can you throw these things away?

Items hold sentimental value...but often, it's not the item, it's the memory, or the closeness to the person who gave you the gift that makes it hard to part.  Items are inanimate...they have no real sentimentality.  So, if you are torn and in agony when it comes to what goes and what stays, do this...

Get your digital camera and start taking pictures of the angels, and dried florals, and special mugs, and dolls, and kids' drawings, and plaster-of-paris one-of-a-kind art projects.  Download your pictures to the computer...but don't stop there.  Create a word file, at the very least, or a photo book through places like Snapfish.com, and add short captions for each picture.  What memory does this item recall?  Why did it have a place of honor in your home?  Take these 3D objects and give them eternal life by saving them with the stories they invoke.

This is made via MixBook.com.

You could even make one book for each child, and create something that someday they can share with their own children.

Here are some online sites where you can make your own photo book.

Shutterfly

Blurb

Mix Book

My Publisher

Picaboo

Walgreens