As you might remember from last Thursday, I mentioned the memorial for Elaine Baer. I was intrigued how her niece told us that when she was cleaning out her aunt’s house, she found a world map with pins on each place she visited. She also had albums and albums full of photos. They would keep them, but they were looking for a place to store them and how to divide them up (I remember this from Nan – however, since dad was an only child, it was easier).
I could relate to this. I am the princess of travel/concert memorabilia and I’m trying to get myself out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my memorabilia, but I am finding I just don’t have space for it. I’ve been off for the past two days and think I cleaned out? Nope. Yesterday, I had lunch with Christina, today I only worked the library and had lunch with Ronald. I try to clean out every few months because each time I donate (or get rid of) new things. Sometimes it pains me to get rid of things and some things I won’t get rid of because it’s sentimental.
Christina and I were chatting about this yesterday. She wants to buy a van and live out of a van. She collects memorabilia too and has been trying to get rid of some of it to make space. We both agreed that it’s a balance – I think memories are more important than stuff. I rather make memories from the experiences than collect stuff. HOWEVER, I do take photos and I do like making scrapbooks. We both agreed that it was important, especially in the future when things go 100% digital and it could be lost forever, where a book would not. A book or album is more than a file. This is where balance comes in. I think it’s great to have scrapbooks and albums, but don’t go overboard.
I am in this process with my Happiness Box slips. I am currently scrapbooking 2017, will scrapbook 2016’s after 2017, and will scrapbook 2018 next year and will be thinking of the space issue as I move forward. I definitely want these slips to look back on these memories and feel good moments, but I will definitely get rid of some things I do not need. I definitely want to include this in my Happiness Box project book.
Today, I had lunch with Ronald. It was nice to catch up and share some laughs. Here is the selfie we took in December; it’s in Happiness Box 2017. I think next time we meet up, I might get a picture with Ronald for Happiness Box 2018. Would it be weird?
I also visited the Connors today. The Connors were Nan’s neighbours and we still keep in touch. Mary and Flo are sisters and today when I visited, Mary was out. I had the chance to catch up with Flo and we took some photos together. The laughs! She enjoyed that!
The Happiness Box Project 