Precious memories take up too much damned space.

Months after moving in and many more months after we started to fill the self storage locker we are almost done emptying it. Hubby made one stuffed-to-the-roof van-run today and we spent much of the day opening, emptying, merging and sorting the stuff in the boxes.

I also shuffled a lot of stuff around in what we call our cold room -- a little storage area more or less under the front stairs. In the process I found a few treasures and a lot of clutter. I am honestly at a loss for what to do with some of this stuff. One of the several organization books I own (yes, I am embarrassed to admit that I own multiple books on decluttering) suggested taking photos of some of the stuff that lives in the keepsake boxes then get rid of the stuff but keep the photos. To some extent, this makes sense. I really don't need that New Kids on the Block fashion doll that is still in its box... and yet it's still sitting under a pile of other stuff I don't really need. Eventually, I will sort all that stuff out -- some of it will end up in the yard sale in two weeks.

The bigger problem is some of the other clutter. The remaining texts from my plumbing courses more than a decade ago; a mountain of greeting cards; schoolwork; stacks of photos that weren't good enough to put in a photo album but aren't lousy enough to throw out; that kitchen gadget I asked for and got for Christmas then only used once.

There are memories attached to each of those things, some more precious than others. Where does one draw the line? True, for each box I opened, there was something inside that made me smile... but overall, I ended up feeling defeated by the Stuff.

And there's 40 more boxes in that storage locker. Sigh.