When we cleaned out our basement a few years ago we went through all our old keepsakes from before we were married. It was a lot of fun to do it and brought back so many memories. Of course, I still kept it all. Then I can go back through it again!

We have now been married for 17 years and can honestly say we don't have anything we have held onto unless we have it in our curio cabinets or on display. A lot of those things I take out on special occassions and use. The other items are knickknack kinds of things that every few years I go through and toss things we don't want anymore.

I love to use things that have been passed on to me because then I remember who I got it from or some happy memory of being with them. So as older family members pass on and I get something of theirs, when I use it, I like to tell my DD stories of that person or something that happened when I was younger.