Dealing with Sentimental Clutter

A common decluttering tip you've probably seen is to purge your sentimental clutter, or at least as much as you can bear to part with. You lived through it, the conventional wisdom says, so you really don't need to keep the mementos to keep the memories.

I disagree with this statement wholeheartedly. Maybe my memory is worse than most, but scrapbooks and other items are great memory aides. While I'm probably not going to forget the amazing overseas trips I've had, or my favorite vacations, I do tend to forget some of the little details. Flipping through scrapbooks, diaries, and cards reminds me of these things. While I agree that we shouldn't spend too much time living in the past, sometimes it's fun to remember special times and trips.

Lately though as I've gotten serious about ditching my clutter, I have begun to resent the space and weight all those scrapbooks and journals from years past are taking up, especially compared to the amount of time I spend looking at them.

Toss versus keep isn't the only solution
Luckily, there is a middle ground between keeping those space-hogging memories or dumping them. You can digitize them instead. I'm finding more and more things I'm willing to part with, provided I have digital copies to look at when the sentimental mood strikes.

There are several methods of digitizing your memories:

1. Scan scrapbooks, cards, papers, art and other mementos: I hate the amount of space my old scrapbooks from college take up, especially compared to how often I look at them, so scanning them is the perfect solution. While this can be time-consuming, it's nice to be able to view the pages anytime from my laptop.

2. Retype (or scan) old journals. Scanning takes a lot of time, so for things like journals I've willing to part with I find it easier to just retype them. You may want to scan a few pages to keep a sample of your handwriting or to capture special pages.

3. Take pictures of items that you'd like to remember, but don't want to hang on to anymore.

As a bonus, making digital copies of items and keeping them online or in a safe spot outside your home protects them from being ruined in a disaster. Just don't forget to back-up your digital memories in more than one location.

House Voyeur

Yesterday my mom and I went to a local home tour and it was FABULOUS! I snapped a few pics, mostly of bathrooms for some reason. I guess I have bathroom renovations on the brain.

If only I had space for this clawfoot tub, but alas, I do not.

Hex tile is definitely on my most-wanted list. I have problems understanding how people could not love this floor.

The blue accent tile got me thinking.

This hex tile is pretty fantastic too.

Odds and Ends

I'll have a real update soon with pics from our lovely vacation at the beach, but until then here are some odds and ends I've found online recently and felt like sharing, or bitching about.

1. IKEA: Herding Cats Experiment
   Just saw this on Apartment Therapy and love, love, love it. This only makes my IKEA obsession that much stronger. If you like cats at all, it's worth viewing both videos.
   
   
2. New blog obsession: Going Slowly
   I found new-to-me blog Going Slowly this week (sadly I can't find who originally linked to it at this point) and have been hooked ever since. If you have or have ever had the travel bug, then this blog is a must read. Tara and Tyler have a definite talent for writing and photography, and their journal makes me almost feel like I'm there crossing Siberia with them.
   
   
3. Bloglines shutting down October 1
   Total suckage. I already exported my feeds to Google Reader, but so far I don't like it anywhere near as much as Bloglines. I mean sure this is a good excuse to clean house feed-wise even more than I have been, but to me, Bloglines was much more user friendly. Using an RSS reader is what makes it possible for me to check on so many of my favorite blogs quickly. Recently I got rid of some old feeds and went from over 150 subscriptions to 123, although I doubt I'll be able to go much lower than that. I needs all my feeds, needs them I say.
   

Reno Dreams: Cheap-N-Good Kitchen Redo

Dreaming about renovating my kitchen is tons of fun; actually embarking on that renovation, not so much. Nothing indulges my kitchen reno fantasies like inspiring DIY renovations that don't break the bank.

This Old House featured a DIY reno (found via Apartment Therapy) where a couple transformed this nightmare:

Into a magazine-ready kitchen for just $1,500! Very impressive.

I love, love, love this little organization station. I'd love to fit something like this in my kitchen, but the only possible space is going to be used for a much-needed pantry. Well, it would be if I ever decide to go from kitchen reno dreaming to kitchen reno doing. *shudder* I hate thinking about all that dust, and work, and arguments!

But if I had a lovely spot like this to eat dinner in, and even have another couple over, well it might just be worth it.

Fabulous, fabulous kitchen!

Declutter Bug

Decluttering seems to be a never-ending process for me and every time I go through my stuff I find something I can get rid of. I mean we're hardly at a bare-bones level around here. Luckily, if I'm in a right mood I find decluttering kind of fun. Yesterday I attacked some kitchen cabinets and other drawers that had gotten out of hand and were bugging me.

The dark after photos (forgot to take them yesterday). If you
can't see the difference, that's extra space in there!

the rejects

And here are some of the rejects. Yesterday the following items hit the donate pile:

1. Ice cube trays
2. Two snack bowls
3. Two mugs I kept forever even though I never used them just because they are Bodum. How silly is that?
4. Sugar pourer
5. Old travel bottle
6. Jar
7. Tea strainer
8. Two blank journals that I'm never going to use. I prefer to go digital these days.
9. Facial toner - Most pointless skincare product ever!
10. IKEA pot - pretty but never used.

I've also created a new page with a list of most of the things I've decluttered during my last two years of concentrated decluttering. Here's the list of the dearly decluttered.

Hide-N-Go Seek

Pig always finds weird places to hang out. This is what I woke up to yesterday and I couldn't resist LOL-ing it.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

The zinnias are blooming, the zinnias are blooming!

I know I'm a little late, but I didn't want to miss two Garden Bloggers' Bloom Days in a row. So without further ado...

Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers. This spring, after I planted my wintersown zinnias, something ate them right up. Dismayed at the idea of not having zinnias this year I direct-sowed the rest of the seeds I had on hand in pots. And they turned out beautifully, so beautifully in fact that I'm putting this on my mental to-do list for next year.

I just love poppies. This is the first time I tried growing the gorgeous venus poppy (winter-sown of course), and I'll definitely do it again. The only thing I long for is to have many, many more of them.

Coneflowers

Ditch lily

daisies

cosmos

Cleome

I'd forgotten about sowing these white coneflowers until they bloomed. I used to not plant white flowers, I thought they blend in too much with my white house, but I've come to love them.

Also blooming in my garden:

• Balloon flowers
• Coreopsis
• Dianthus
  
• Gladiolas
• Lavendar
  
• Liatris
• Snapdragons
  

Want to see more blooms? Visit May Dreams Gardens on the 15th of every month to see what's blooming in gardens around the world.