Decluttering Sentimental Items

How do we approach minimizing or decluttering when it comes to sentimental items?

This can be an extremely difficult category to tackle, so I would recommend not starting your decluttering journey here!

Here are a few ways I have found work best to declutter/keep sentimental items—I hope you find inspiration in this post and are able to choose what works best for you and your family.

Where to Start

It’s best to understand a few things before we jump into the actual decluttering!

1. We all have different clutter thresholds! This means that we all have varying levels of stuff that we’re able to peacefully live with before we start getting stressed out. Don’t let others dictate what’s best for you!
2. Sentimental items are extremely personal, so you need to figure out what works best for you. Don’t let the expectations of others overshadow which items are (or aren’t) worth keeping.
3. Your love language may affect what you want to keep. The 5 Love Languages, written by Gary Chapman, helps us understand how we receive love and feel appreciated—you can take the quiz here if you don’t know what your love language is. By discovering our love language(s), we can understand why certain items resonate more with us and make informed decisions regarding our sentimental items.

Techniques for Decluttering Sentimental Items

The Container Method

Sorting through sentimental items can be emotional, but the container method combats this with its practical and factual approach. Start by choosing your container—this could be a drawer, cupboard, box, trunk, closet, etc. All of your sentimental items can go in this space. However, once it’s full, you can’t put things elsewhere. If you find a sentimental item you really want to keep, that’s completely fine! You just need to get rid of something in the container to make space for this new thing.

A Wait On It Bin

This is a temporary storage for items that you aren’t sure if you’re going to want to store, but you aren’t ready to make the decision yet. Choose a small to medium-sized box, put items in, and set a time that you will go through it and make a decision.

If the box gets filled before that time, go through it immediately!

I like to use this approach for cards and notes that we receive throughout the year. It can be difficult in the moment to decide whether you’d like to keep a greeting card from family or friends because it all feels so special. So I put most of our cards or things I don’t feel like I can make an immediate decision about in our little bin, and about every 6 months I go through it. Putting a little bit of time and space between myself and these items makes the decision much easier.

Sentimental Memory Bins

I first heard about this concept from The Minimal Mom, and I love it! The idea is to have one bin for each family member to keep items that are special to them. This idea employs the container method from above, but it also allows each member of your family to have a designated space for special items.

Often the trouble with sentimental items is that we don’t know exactly where we should put them, and so items end up scattered across our home, tucked in closets, stashed in drawers, and typically lost or forgotten about. With this method, you know where to put things that are special, and you know where to go looking for that special item.

I would recommend either keeping each box in the respective individual’s room or having one designated closet for all the boxes.

A Few Other Tips

What About Larger Items?

Sometimes the sentimental items we have won’t fit in a box. Many people want to save their wedding dresses, suits, woodworking projects, cars, or other large items. As I mentioned above, sentimental items are extremely personal and everyone has a different clutter threshold that they can live with.

Be candid with yourself and your family about what truly matters to you (not what you feel guilty about keeping or getting rid of), and get creative with how you keep or display larger items.

What If I Want To Keep Items for the Future?

It’s a great thought to want to save special items for the future (and one that I often have with jewellery, books, photo albums, and more). If you feel tempted to do this, I would recommend the container concept to keep the amount you save in check.

Once you start saving items for the future, it can be difficult to stop!

Again, I think sentimental items are so personal, and it can be a very beautiful expression of love to want to pass on a piece of your history to someone in the future. By choosing a container to house these items, you can ensure that you don’t get carried away and only save the most important things.

How Do I Commemorate Items I Choose to Get Rid Of?

There are many creative ways to save a memory of an item even if you choose to get rid of the item itself. Take a photo, keep a small piece of it (i.e., a small swatch of material from a wedding dress), or just be thankful for the memories the item gave you and enjoy the feeling of passing it on to someone who will love and use it.

Do you have other tips or ideas for how to declutter sentimental items? I’d love to hear them!