Honour Your Memories Without Holding onto Clutter

There is more than one type of memories

Memories are tricky things. They live in our minds but they seem to have a life of their own. They pop up whenever they feel like it and have the ability to bring immense joy, but also deep sadness.
 
We humans are attached to our memories and cherish them to a point that we want to hold on to them at any cost. And in this process we often go overboard in our attempts to keep them alive. Therefore, it seems like a good idea to preserve physical items that remind us of a memory, a person, a circumstance or a place. But this also leads to a plethora of items in our homes that serve no other purpose than to conjure up a memory.

And here’s the kicker: some memories may not be good for us in the long run and we may be better off if they were relegated to the dustbin of history. I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with a couple of memories you’d rather forget…
 
Of course, it’s important to remember events and people that have shaped your life and personality, and determined which forks in the road you chose. I daresay that what made you into who you are today is hard to forget anyway and does not really need many physical reminders.
 
Not all memorabilia carry the same importance. It’s one thing to hang on to the diploma you have worked hard to get and that has shaped your life’s path, but it’s an entirely different kettle of fish to hang on to the raffia wine holder from a holiday in Spain in the late 1980s.
 
Did I mention that memories are tricky things? They want you to hang on to stuff so they are not forgotten, and to make you think that they are more important than they really are. The trick is to separate the really important ones from the parasites. But how?
 
One typical instance for faded memories resurfacing is when you open those long-forgotten boxes in the loft after you have moved house three times and lugged them along. You’ll be overwhelmed by memories associated with some of the stuff you find, but here’s the important question to ask: “Since I have not thought about this for a long time: am I looking at a valuable memory, or is there a good reason why I had forgotten it until now?”
 
Keep in mind that this item may have made you re-remember something that your mind has decided it no longer needed to hang on to! It’s all too easy to then say “I’ll just keep this then” but you would just be preserving something you felt you didn’t need to remember long ago.
 
That’s not to say that some items may have real memory value, but it takes a bit of practice to determine which things are true memory items, and which are just memorabilia. The difference is likely to do with a sense of time: real memory items are timeless, whereas memorabilia are temporary reminders of something joyful that can be superseded by the next joyful memory.