I hear ya on the sorting and going through handed down boxes of memories. My problem is the sentimental thoughts that go through my head as I look through my Gram's or my Mother's belongings. I know some of the items are antiques and some are just momento's, but I sit and recall warm fuzzy memories of those ''items'' being in their homes years ago.

I also know that someday, my DD will not know what to do w/this stuff in my basement, but it's hard to know what to do with it. Right now, it's all in boxes on shelves in the storage area down there. DH wants me to go through it, but I'm just not ready to purge those items yet. Maybe I'm just being lazy!!! That's probably it.

(LMAO at the the milking cows and laundry comment, B2!!!! Now, that's funny, but soooo true!)

That's the hard part for me too, DM. Weeding out old phone bills and magazine articles I don't need any more is time-consuming, but easy.

My Mom's diaries, from the time she was eleven? My Dad's old 4-H books? My ticket stub from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert? My grandmother's recipes? Grandpa's cereal bowls? The letters Mom and Dad wrote back and forth during WWII? My great-grandmother's quilt blocks?

Now that stuff is hard. Plus, after 10 years for Dad and almost 9 for Mom, I still have a hard time with anything that was theirs. Little by little, I am letting things go. Little by little.

Here is what I would do with the paper stuff (ticket stubs, letters, etc.): Scan them into the computer and store them electronically. The paper will eventually degrade, but you could scan them into the computer and store them on CD's or even have them printed out and bound in a book (Ritz Camera does things like that pretty cheap).

Question for ya's??? B2, I too, have my Mother's journals from the past 15-20 yrs. I actually have them in a box under my bed. I can't look through them, as it doesn't feel right, and maybe subconciously, I don't want to relive her pain when my Father was so ill, as she wrote in them every day.

What to do w/them is the question?? The only one I glanced at was the last few months of her life entries. I wanted to see if she was in pain longer than I realized or if she had been keeping her illness from me. She never wrote a word about it.

Sure didn't mean to hijack~~~ my bad!

Not hijacking in the least. That very much goes with my topic!

My mother's diaries (and my grandmother's!) are a legacy. If they had not wanted me to read them, they would have burned them or left instructions to do so. Neither one did.

I have laughed and cried as I glimpsed the mind of my Mom as a teenager, a newlywed (!), and in her declining years. I wept with her when she wrote of losing my stillborn brother, her first child. I chuckled when she recorded my terrible two antics. I enjoyed reading how much we had it common, and how much we didn't.

When my grandmother's diary simply says "overstreet in a.m.", I picture her walking along the dirt road with her cloth shopping bag, chatting with neighbors along the way, stopping on the bridge to look down at the West River.

My family journals are great treasures to me. Bittersweet to read, but precious.

Try and think..what can be repurposed?

Are there stacks of card, that you can use the fronts for postcards? (yup..everyone who sent me cards...I do use them for postcards!)

Are there old magazines that can be donated to a school for projects?

Some stuff holds memories, but could be used by people who are needing.

There have been some apartment fires here. I took a big box of kitchen stuff I had used in a long time. They lost everything and I had stuff not being used. Yep, I had a platter that was my grandmothers, a fry pan that my grandpa gave. I think they would be happy to see the stuff used.

You have a good point, Yappy! I should look at it that way! Like a friend of mine told me, they are material things, the memories are in your heart.

Thanks for the reminder.

I like the idea of having that family treasure box/trunk. I have one. It will get passed down. It was my dad's footlocker from the service.

All the journals, love letters, those generations will treasure.

My mixing bowls, sports trophies...nah. :wink:

I am doing this too B2Y. I started last year! It's still not all done!

I am sorting through stuff from the deceased members of my family and deciding what should be saved and what should go. The true treasures are being packed up and taken to our family summer home or given to relatives and survivors.

I have yard sale boxes and keep boxes and unsure boxes and burn boxes! I am hoping to finally get through it all this spring and then move on to the stuff stored in the garage!

It ain't easy to go through your own treasures, nevermind other's treasures, but it sure is interesting! Lucky you!

i like the idea of photocopy onto disc ... also ... have you thought of scanning your parents letters from WWII and then donating the originals to a history museum ... there are lots of museums who would love to have them and would preserve them for future generations to see and learn from ... just a thought

i am slowly going through the boxes on boxes of stuff in the house ... the real challenge will come this spring when i tackle the garage ... its a two car garage stuffed full and not with a car either .... yes part of the space is taken up with my MIL fishing boat but the boat is filled with stuff and stuff is stuffed under the boat too ... i am going to rent one of those big dumpsters as alot of the stuff has been damaged by wild cats, mice, and flooding (mildew) ... things that have sentimental value i will photograph it fi it is something i can do without ... that way i still have the photo to remember by ... if its something i cant do without, i will label them so that when the boys finally get them they will know what its story is ... at least that is my goal