Somewhere in my home there is a packet of letters bound with an elastic. Letters that were written by my mom to her mom about me when I was between the ages of 6 months to roughly 2 years old. The letters tell of my mom’s first time here in Toronto with a baby, how it was to navigate motherhood while learning a new language, how it was making friends with other mothers, watching her baby and herself see snow for the first time and writing of how much she missed her family back home in Rio.
Somewhere in my home there is a box filled with my baby clothes that my mother sewed herself while she was living in a one bedroom apartment with my father down on the Kingsway in Toronto. Tiny, delicate and sweet outfits in shades of yellow, pink and white.
Somewhere in my home there is a large Rubbermaid container filled with my artwork, notebooks, stories, assignments and essays from kindergarten all the way through to university. There are diaries and random objects kept from my teen years; a feather from my grandmother’s parrot, a ticket stub from a Platinum Blonde concert, a subway token from Paris.
Now there are new boxes being filled, boxes with clothing kept from S when she was a baby, boxes with birthday cards and Christmas cards from her and to her, boxes filled with her artwork and assignments from school. A tiny box being started with a few clothing items from L. Birthday cards from his first and Christmas cards.
J is not sentimental at all. He has nothing from his childhood. His parents kept a few items but he has no interest really in looking at them. He tells me if we’re not actively using the items why keep them? Good question I guess? I don’t really go down and look at the stuff I keep. Sometimes I do browse through my old diaries and cringe in embarrassment but they go back in the box. I haven’t looked through S’s clothing that I kept since putting them away. So why do we keep them? Will S & L enjoy looking at them when they’re adults? Before the holidays I went on a mini cleaning spree of our computer/den/office and threw away my wedding cards! At the time I was thinking they’re just cluttering up this room and I really don’t need to look at them year after year. So out they went. I don’t miss those at all. But those boxes in the basement filled with my mom’s letters, my stuff and S & L’s those I’ll keep. For sentimental reasons, for good luck, for remembering.
Do any of you keep things for sentimental reasons or do you just throw it out if it’s not being used?
Oh, it’s lovely that you have those letters that your mother wrote to her family, it’s so nice that they saved them for you, they’re priceless!
I save these things too and I cherish them. I would have saved more clothes from my babies, but K won’t let me.
Mementos from one’s childhood, however, these should be definitely saved for your children and one day they can decide if they want to keep them.
I could write more about this, but I’m in a hurry now & just didn’t want not to respond.
I wish we had the space to keep more than we do.
I managed to convince my mom to let us store most of Lulu’s baby clothes at their home (the basement is about 10 times the size of our entire house)
but I think she gets even more sentimental than I do when looking at Lulu’s tiny outfits.
like your new look too!