The Magic of Photographs and Clutter

Our uncle did this one when he had to clear out his childhood bedroom of all of his football trophies and we thought it was ingenious. He lives in San Francisco now so space is limited, but tucked away on his computer or in a picture book is a great photo of him in his parent’s back yard surrounded by his former athletic glory. Sure you can’t hold them or touch them, but they can still remind and invoke memory and better yet, they take up virtually no physical space at all.

So Real Simple’s Fourth Step for dealing with Sentimental Clutter is “Take a Picture (It Lasts Longer) is one of the great ideas hands down for what to do with stuff you don’t have room for anymore and that has no practical value in your life. Like, um, all those trophies. Or those paperback books that are threatening to disintegrate in your hands. “Even with archival paper and plastic sleeves, physical objects can fade or get lost,” says Real Simple’s organizing consultant Ellen Madere.

Frankly I think this is a universally sound solution for ALL personality types who have too much sentiment and not enough space! It’s also, Real Simple points out as you can see in the above photo a great idea for saving your children’s artwork without having to SAVE your children’s artwork!