Sorting Party

Sounds way more glamorous than "I spent my weekend going through papers and finding storage solutions for stuff." So my "sorting party" was a little like losing a bet. A few months back we created a new workspace in the loft for DH and quickly his paperwork began forming a moat around the area.

Compounding the paper lake was a separate sort we also completed of miscellaneous items that we had identified as needing or wanting to keep, but they had no proper home. DH had agreed to handle the paperwork, I had said when that was done I would deal with the rest.

My dislike for clutter finally made me cave. I spent several hours not only sorting through a hodge podge of college papers and portfolio materials, but also piles of DH's research. For the record the new fancy hotel workspace model the company has moved to where no one actually has an office is reeking havoc on our space. So delighted we can become the storage facility for papers that need to be kept for future projects, but can't be kept at the office because they eliminated all of the file cabinets. Brilliant.

So my Saturday/Sunday sort struck me as productive because I can see the floor again upstairs, but also made me wonder "how much of this do we really need?" There's that weird balance between not wanting to be a hoarder and also not wanting to get rid of literally every item the second you have no immediate use for it.

Are there reasonable standards for how much one should really have or hold on to? Holiday decorations are always a point of wonder for me. We currently have four boxes of Christmas decorations, one holds the tree, and the others are full of ornaments and various other decorations. It strikes me as too much, but I keep thinking that I'll use more of it. No?

Sure our china and crystal are still packed up and take up space, but that doesn't bother me. It's the seemingly random boxes of "memory" stuff that I fear could overwhelm us. We have at least three boxes of photos or mementos from the past 12 years and prior.  So do I take the time to make them all into books now? Minimize the space? How many childhood stuffed animals should we really hold onto?

I don't want to dispose for the sake of disposing, but I also don't want to be a warehouse for things of no use and no true sentimental value. How are you handling what to keep and what to not?