Some of the collections I keep are sentimental in nature and normally live in a box somewhere under the bed or high on a shelf in the closet. Among them are old love letters, ticket stubs, postcards, mementos from times gone past. And although I've gone through and chucked quite a lot, there are those things that I want to keep.
• Frame Them. Obviously a very old love letter from an ex should not be framed, but one from your current partner could be framed and put somewhere discreet where only you might see it. It's a nice way to bring the personal into your home and to help tell the story of your relationship.
• Be Practical. Follow Beth's tips for practically sorting and organizing all tings sentimental so that you aren't accidentally hanging on to a bunch of birthday cards that really don't mean anything to you. Her system guarantees that you'll only hang on to what's truly important or meaningful for you.
• Go Digital. I've got a box of slides I inherited when my gramma died and I've started the process of scanning them so that the whole family can have copies. Plus as I go through them, I pick only the best ones. Earlier in the year when my cousins were down we had a slideshow of some of them and decided together which ones were important to us. It was a lot more fun doing it with other family members than trudging through it alone.
• Ask Martha. Martha Stewart always has great ideas for organizing and mementos are no exception. For travel mementos, she suggests bringing along a single hole punch and a key ring. As you go along your trip you can just punch a hole and add items to the key ring. This way there's nothing you have to edit once you're home, the 'scrapbook' is already complete.
• Put It On Display. While going through old photos I decided to pull out a bunch and just start a collage on the wall above the desk. It gave new life to old photos that had meaning for me and since I wasn't bothering to frame them, I could swap them out at any time. Just make sure you have other copies of them as they will tend to fade if they're out in the sun!
How do you keep love letters and other sentimental collections?
Images: Erin MC Hammer via Creative Commons, Jessica of Under Construction via Apartment Therapy Flickr Group Pool, Beth Ziegler, Martha Stewart, Marie Claire Maison
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My husband and I have TWO boxes full of everything from movie ticket stubs and dried flowers to plane tickets from our honeymoon. I keep telling myself to make a scrap book but who has that kind of time when there are so many new post on apartmenttherapy to read?
I would love to find a solution that would honor the collection without excluding any part of it.
@annitah -- I find it a little strange, too, to keep love letters from exes (and other items of that nature.) On one hand, I like the idea of honouring what was had -- it's a part of what makes us who we are -- but, as you were saying, I also don't want it to impact my present/future relationships.
I do like the idea of framing a letter given by a current partner, though, and placing it somewhere discrete (perhaps by the bed or on the counter/shelf of an en-suite bathroom.) Sort of a nice reminder of where you've been and where you want to go together.
I don't think it's weird to hang on to old love letters at all. Speaking as a once nosy kid who went through a lot of my mom's old stuff (yearbooks, journals, letters, poetry) from high school, it was not uncomfortable or weird for me to read things from or about her exes. Maybe it would be to her, but it actually really helped me see her as a person at a time in my life when I was pulling away from her. The realization that I think we would have been friends if she was not my mom and we were the same age helped me become much closer to her.
i have a wire basket (picked up from Michaels) in which i put all of our wedding cards (we got married in april). i know one day these will get twined together and boxed but for now, it's nice to see all the love and well wishes from our friends and family.
I buy cheap old unwanted hardcover books and alter them -- add beautiful papers, trinkets, etc. to the covers and insides. Then I add some of my sentimental letters and memorabilia into them as a way to display them artfully.
noell, can you please expand on that idea with the old books? Do you remove and replace the pages?
Letters from old lovers aside, I keep many cards and letters from my dearest friends. Recently I have taken to using them as book marks. I discovered that I once placed a card inside a book and recently found it, reading the card brought such a warm feeling over me that I longed to repeat the experience. So now my book collection is combined with sweet notes and wishes from people I really care about. I just want to make sure I do not lean a book out with a note or card, because sometimes you don't get your books back.
Keepsakes can be inspirational, sweet and sometimes romantic. I agree with the other comments regarding keeping letters from ex's. All correspondence is part of the history of you. Only get rid of it if its emotionally painful. Personally, I imagine that someday, when I am gone, my grandchildren will go through my letters, books and other things and find that their grandmother had an interesting life!
Okay, VERY late to this discussion, but in response to beyourownsaviour's comment about most letters being typed these days....
I recently printed all of my saved text messages from my boyfriend in a nice font on a few different antique-looking papers, cut them out individually (each ~2" x 1"), and made a collage of them in a scrapbook. I put the most meaningful ones on top in a slightly different color. It was a great way for me to save the best ones and visibly capture the volume of "sweet nothings."
@anitha What if your ex was the parent of your child? I think in that situation it would be nice to hold onto something, but more as a memento for your child, then for yourself. Perhaps it's more fitting to actually GIVE it to your child though.
Great old love-letter story: One of my co-workers got married to her high-school sweetheart when they were only eighteen. She tucked all the love-letters from their courtship into a notebook, shelved it in the living room, and forgot about them for thirty years or so.
Flash forward to this fall, when she and her kids started cleaning out her mother's house following her death and came across love letters between her mother and father. This got everybody in a sentimental mood and they took down my co-workers notebook of forgotten missals...only to realize that seventeen year old boys thirty years ago had about as much on their minds as seventeen year old boys today!
She was totally mortified at how racy and colorful they were. Of course, her grown children loved it and have been tormenting her with quotations ever since.
When I travel I always save the receipts, flyers, maps or business cards of the places I eat/shop at as souvenirs. I'm horrible at remembering to keep a journal and this way I can remember my trip AND find those great restaurants and shops if I ever visit the destination again. Back home I sort and paste the good ones into a notebook. It has come in handy more than ones both for recommendations to friends and as a memo to me of where to go.