My husband and I went to visit his parents this weekend. They are 79 and 80. He has a younger brother. I am always amazed at the crap that his parents kept from when they were kids. They moved into the house where they are now a few years ago, and we helped them go through everything when they moved. His mom didn’t want to throw away a little plastic cup, as it was the one my husband had with his first toothbrush.
Everytime we go visit, they drag out something from 50 years ago. This weekend, it was a letter my husband wrote to Santa when he was 6 (he dictated it and his mom wrote it, actually).
It’s not hurting anyone, and they have room for all of this stuff, but I’m really astounded that they keep this stuff, and that they remember what the significance of some of it is.
I don’t have any of my own kids, but I do have a stepson who was 16 when my husband and I started dating. He’s now 29, and I have kept the cards he’s given me and have printed out an especially touching e-mail he sent me one Mothers Day. There are a few ornaments we put on the tree every year that he made when he was a kid. Other than that, and a lot of photos and his baseball card collection, I don’t think we have a lot of stuff.
What do you have from your kids’ childhoods and how old are your kids?
What my mom has of my entire childhood can fit in one small mover’s box, with left over room to spare.
My son has just turned one, and I plan to keep only a photo album (one for every one-two years, is my plan) and movies in digital format. If it doesn’t fit the album, it goes. Anything else, as soon as we don’t use it anymore and someone else could, out it goes.
I’m not really sure how much stuff we have.
A few boxes of artwork, perhaps. Some of their old favorite toys and possessions - my son has a storage container full of Legos, for example; and I have a plastic bag full of stuffed animals somewhere. Handmade Christmas tree ornaments, for sure.
Some of the items are simply irreplaceble. One example is a tiny homemade coloring book; the cover is a piece of cardboard left over from a bag of wee plastic sharks. I had taken this piece of cardboard and filled the inside with scraps of paper. On the first several pages I had drawn some pen-and-ink sharks, which my son colored with crayons. The later pages of the book are sharks he drew himself.
My stepkids inherited a good bit of stuff from their mom (she passed away a few years ago). There is no way that I’m going to throw any of that out without their express permission. Included in that stuff are some of their old toys and artwork.
The kids are now 24, 22, 20, and 19. Three of them are still living here with us.
Recently my parents gave me a pile of stuff to take when they were downsizing. That was probably when I was thirty.
I have all my school reports, all my piano exam reports, my Plunket book and my photograph albums. Every now and then when I’m looking for something the spare room, I’ll come across them and sit down and have a browse. I love having them!
My mom is a pack rat. She’s got quite a few of my old toys, clothes from when I was an infant, my old books, and a metric crapload of pictures. She has my baby teeth, a few locks of my hair, and I think she even has my foreskin. She’s got paperwork, too. Drawings from kindergarten, homework from first grade, etc. She has a couple of my old sippy cups and toddler plates. She has quite a bit of my younger sister’s stuff, but not nearly as much as me, her firstborn. Not only that, but she has several of her own toys from when she was a kid, and she also moved back into the house she grew up in when my grandma died. She’s kind of nostalgic.
My son is only two, so I haven’t really had the chance to keep much of his stuff, and anyway I haven’t inherited nearly the pack-rattiness of my mother, although I have some of her nostalgia. We have a lock of my son’s hair, quite a bit of photos, and the outfit he wore home from the hospital. He still has quite a few of the same toys, but we’ll get rid of them when he grows out of them. My wife wouldn’t let me clutter our storage areas with that kind of crap even if I was inclined. I have a feeling that when my son is an adult, we’ll have a few mementos and a bunch of pictures and that’s it.
My mom kept a bunch of our stuff.
The night before I got married she presented me with a little keepsake box filled with various things of mine - my first book report (Danny & The Dinosaur), my graduation tassel, a bunch of buttons, and a few other things. She also gave my the dress I came home from the hospital in. Since it was just sitting in a bag in my closet, I decided to frame it in a shadow box and send it back to her for Mother’s Day last week.
It came out pretty cute I think.
Since I have the outfits my boys came home in, I think I’m going to do the same with them for myself. And I’ve got tons of stuff they’ve made or bought for me over the years. Weird little vases and paper weights from school sales, reports, report cards and tests, and lots of pictures and art projects, and a few toys and misc. stuff. I framed a few of the drawings and art projects and hung them in my computer lounge.
See here and here.
I’ve got a lot more stuff packed away though. Eventually I’ll frame more of them, or make scrapbooks or something to give to each of them some day.
My boys are 22 and 18, and my husband’s kids are 17, 15, and 13.
Aww love the shadowbox idea!
When my brother (major tough guy - no use for sentiment especially as applied to “junk”) went off to college, my Mother was also moving out of our townhouse. We were tasked with going through our belongings, and he just trashed everything.
I went through and salvaged some of his things, his (original!) Hardy Boy’s series books, a few small toys which I sealed in plastic, etc. (Yes, this was before ziplock bags!)
When his first son was born ten years or so later I brought it all to him in a big box and just let him rummage through. He sat there crying, and read the “Little Engine that could” to his baby on the spot.
Keep it - we’ve all got room for a box or two.
I have some special baby outfits & blankets, a few toys, report cards, photos, some artwork (I wish I had kept more) Some schoolwork. I’m glad we kept the school work as my son is still at high school & he has found the format of some of the artwork challenging. Seeing what his sister did meant he understood the assignment. (he couldn’t copy it as they had to do different artists)I just threw out a lot of their primary school stuff a few weeks ago, as I feel I’m drowning in clutter!
Edit: & sport trophies, programmes & certificates. My daughter was a top junior in her sport.
Recently picked through an Easy Bake Oven box of stuff at my Dads. My Dad, the Unpackrat. Shocked doesn’t describe it! Photos and school work and art work, mine and my brothers. I took mine and separated theirs into separate piles. Found my Moms old scrapbook from when they were courting, including the love letters he wrote to her and sent it to her.
Myself, two kids, 29 and 21, one medium sized box labeled “memory box”, plus photos.
39 years so far
I tried recently to get my two to agree to let me toss old board games they had as kids, the kind with a simple spinner or movement cards and no strategy whatever.
But they prevailed on me to keep them. I live in a small apartment now and ought to just toss them, but I’m an old softie.