16) Organize Your Memorabilia
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Where do you store all of your memorabilia? If you’re like many, this could pass as your garage. Now amongst this mess of clutter surely there is more than just some keepsakes. The problem is that you fear losing the important because it is mixed in with the unimportant. So you do nothing.
My goal here is to give you a few tips to organize your memorabilia from a minimalist’s perspective.
Limit yourself to how much you can store away. If most of the items are small like books, framed pictures, binders, crafts or sports keepsakes; then pick too small Rubbermaid bins. You can either buy see-through ones or label them- your choice. I’m not splitting hairs here. If the items are larger get one large Rubbermaid bin, the kind people store Christmas trees in.
Take items like sports shirts, hats and jackets; cut out the emblem, logo or team name and give them all to someone who sews or knits. Have them create a blanket or throw rug. It doesn’t matter what, use your creativity.
Take items like papers, awards or certificates and capture them digitally; then have a backup strategy for your digital images. I’m not getting into this because there are a million ways- choose one and do it. Flickr, Picaso, backup with a flash drive, a second portable hard drive, just try something to start with and you can change it later.
My wife loves to scrapbook, so this helps us store lots of photos and purge down the rest. If you don’t like to scrapbook then people will do this for you for a fee.
I keep a file folder in our filing system and call it Posterity. I put golf score cards, pictures, travel information, kids art projects and many other things in there. Occasionally we go through and frame these things or scrapbook them.You could do the same.
As a minimalist type, I like to keep just the really neat memorabilia on the walls or out for decorations. The rest goes in the bins. The rest is sold or given away. If you put everything neat on the wall or the shelves then nothing gets noticed. Imagine walking into a room though with just one amazing mind blowing print. I bet your guests would mention it. Be hard not to.
