Week 6 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge was to tidy sentimental items. Sentimental items are things such as diaries, letters, pictures, and memorabilia. Tidying sentimental items seemed daunting at first, but the rest of the challenge really prepares you for this task.
It has taken me quite some time to get to this category. We have slowly been working through our Week 5 komono and are almost done. We plan to finish that up when we get some warmer weather since the last items are in our garage.
I decided to go ahead and start week 6 anyway, just to keep the tidy challenge moving. Let me tell you, I was completely dreading this week of the challenge.
I am a highly sentimental person and thought this week’s task was going to be incredibly difficult for me. Turns out, I was wrong.
All of the tidying that led up to this point has given me the excellent ability to tell when things really do bring me joy, so I was able to part with way more than I anticipated.
Below are some tips to go through your sentimental items.
Tidying Sentimental Items
Order of Tidying Sentimental Items
There is no particular order Marie Kondo recommends tidying sentimental items in, except to do photos last. I broke mine out by category, depending on where it was located.
For photos, I did pile those all together and saved them for last.
It is recommended to pile all sentimental items in one spot; however, I am getting a bit spent on my house having stuff piled everywhere as we work through the process.
For this category, I took each drawerful of stuff out and went through it right by where it was stored. Most of my items were very different from one another, so I didn’t have to worry about any type of item overlapping.
Do Not Send Items to Your Parents House
Sometimes people want to send their sentimental items from childhood back to their parent’s house.
Marie Kondo recommends not doing this. Once they are sent to your parent’s house, you will likely never look at them again.
Plus, then it leaves your parents with your stuff, which they likely do not want.
School Items
For your old school items, it is recommended to keep only that which had the largest impact on you. I used to have so much stuff from when I was in school.
Now, I’ve narrowed it down to a few projects that I thought were kind of cool that I was particularly proud of.
Past Relationships
Marie Kondo recommends getting rid of everything related to past relationships. The only reason to keep something is that you’ve used it so much you don’t even connect it to the relationship.
If that is the case, it is likely you would have already tidied it in another part of the challenge.
For me, I didn’t have anything except pictures from my past relationships. I haven’t completely finished my pictures just yet, but I do plan on getting rid of nearly all the pictures from my past relationships, except for a few that were high school dances.
Recordings
It is recommended to throw out all your old recordings. I don’t have any of these, so I have no personal recommendations in this category.
Marie states to avoid watching them if you can and if you do, to only watch the beginning.
Personally, I think that if you know what is on the recordings and they bring you joy, keep them.
The other recommendation Marie has is to transfer them to an external hard drive so they are easier to store.
Children’s Creations
For items that your children create, have a space to display them regularly. Once you have enjoyed them to their full potential, Marie states to thank them and then recycle them or throw them out.
If you still can’t part with them, similar to myself, Marie then recommends taking pictures of them and store them virtually.
My daughter’s creations are something that we typically go through once a year. We take a picture of all of them, pick out our favorite few ones, and dispose of the rest.
As a child, I kind of enjoyed going through my old creations in “my box” that my mom kept for me. I am thinking about doing the same for my daughter, but we’ll see if I change my mind as time progresses.
Another cool idea for these types of things would be to create a scrab book out of all of them. It could blend actual crafts of theirs with pictures of others.
Life Records
Life records include things like date books, calendars, diaries, and ticket stubs. I used to keep a ton of these. A few years ago, I finally parted with my old pocket calendars from high school and college.
Now, I only kept one old calendar that was a scrapbook one of my good friends made for me. I haven’t flipped through my two diaries yet from when I was a kid, so I’ll see if those bring me joy when I do that.
I also know I have a few ticket stubs from events I went to. The ticket stubs I plan to put into photo albums around the same year the event happened. Then, when I flip through the albums, I can also remember the events that I might not have had pictures of.
Mementos
This category could include anything you collected over the years such as trophies or pictures of celebrities. I myself kept one poster from my past – my picture of Brian Littrell that I had hung on my door for years as a child.
Even today, the poster still brings a smile to my face, so it is worth keeping. Marie notes that you should display the items that bring you joy.
I have plans to hang this poster up in my closet. That way every time I open the door, I get a smile on my face.
Letters
I have had a little plastic container of letters since I was in middle school.
I kept them mostly because I found it neat to see how little we folded notes when I was a kid. However, I finally sat down and went through all of the letters.
As Marie suggests, I recycled nearly all of them. She recommends keeping those that touch your heart when you read them.
For me, I kept 3 full-on letters. Those 3 letters were from my confirmation when I was in high school. One from each of my parents and one from my uncle.
I also found this note from my dad that I kept because it made my heart smile when I read it.
This one I was so incredibly happy to find. I saw a note my dad left my mom a few months ago and was reminded of his neat little notes with his standard smiley-face signature.
When I found the one pictured above, I was elated, because now I had my own note that I am certain I will cherish for many years to come.
What Marie states in her book is that “the purpose of a letter is fulfilled at the moment it is received” and I found this to be completely true as I went through mine.
I did read every single letter and found it a bit silly to see the things I wrote to friends about as I grew, however, they did not have a purpose in my life any longer.
Writing
Writing is not a category that Marie Kondo covered in her books. However, I have a ton of writings from my time growing up. I wrote several mini-books growing up as a child.
As I grew, I wrote poems and eventually portions of books.
I know it may be silly, but I kept these things. They remind me of how creative I once was and therefore how creative I can still be.
Plus, for me, a lot of these writings do pertain to events in my life and are just a reminder of how far I have come.
I did discard quite a few things, but I kept most of it.
That being said, all my writings can fit in a small upright paper holder, so I’m pleased that they do not take up too much space.
Floor Plans
Floor plans are another category I had to add-in. As a youngster, I was obsessed with creating my own floor plans.
Let me just say, I was not good at most of it. However, looking at some of the better plans, I did get a spark of joy in how much fun it had been to create them.
I discarded over half of the floor plan creations I had, but I kept a few that I enjoyed.
A particularly fun section of floor plans that I discarded was actually a set for the “One Tree Hill” neighborhood I was creating in “The Sims” game at the time.
I had designed a house for each main character from the series to put in my neighborhood.
Photos
Photos are the sentimental Item I have the most of. I found that once I hit high school and college, I became an excessive picture taker.
So far this weekend, I made it through my elementary school and into the first year of high school pictures. In doing so, I cut the number of pictures I had from that time in half at least, if not less.
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to simply touch a picture and tell whether or not I wanted to keep it. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Additional Photo Tips
Marie Kondo recommends laying out all of your pictures by year outside of their photo albums. I had forgotten this tip when I worked through my first batch of photos.
It would have been worth it to do it that way. I found out that I missed some pictures that I had filed into another set of albums I hadn’t realized were there.
Now I need to re-go through the initial pictures I made it through so they can be in the correct order.
Another tip Marie notes is to discard any that are similar. I found that I had so many pictures that were practically the same, and I had kept them all.
Now, I was able to pick out my favorite of the bunch and discard the rest.
She also states to discard all the negatives. I had quite a few of these from when I was younger and had no problems tossing them.
There is no way I would go through those old negatives to find a picture now. I don’t even remember what is on any of them.
If you do not recognize the scenery in a picture, get rid of it, unless it brings you joy. I had so many of these from my younger days, so I just tossed them. If I didn’t have a specific memory associated with it, I figured I didn’t need to keep it.
If your photos are family photos, Marie recommends sorting them together. She says that this can bring extra joy to the process because you can talk about all the fun memories together.
Final Notes on Tidying Sentimental Items
One of my main concerns with tidying my sentimental items is that I would lose my memories associated with these things.
Honestly, I didn’t have that many sentimental items that did this for me. I will have my general memories of writing and sharing letters with friends.
The contents of the letters were no longer important. It was the feeling of companionship that letter-writing had that I needed to remember.
The few letters I did keep were those that had a profound impact on me and I keep those to reference on days I need a pick me up. They contained words to help me constantly remember how much my family loves me.
My favorite quote from Marie Kondo on sentimental items was this: “By handling each sentimental item and deciding what to discard, you process your past.”
I have found this quote to be very true as I went through my items. I found some letters that occurred during middle school when my two best friends had some sort of falling out.
While I still don’t know what happened between them, I realize now that it was not my fault and it is okay if I never find out all the details of what happened.
As an adult, I do realize I could have handled the aftermath better. However, I also know now, that as a kid of that age, I really didn’t know any better.
So, with that, I grant myself grace and work on forgiving myself. This particular event has been one that has haunted me into adulthood and I hope that now as I process it more, I can finally put it in the past and focus on the present.
Feeling After Week 6 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge
Week 6 of the Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge has actually been one of the more fun weeks for me to work through.
I found it particularly joyful to go through items from my childhood and reminisce on how things used to be.
One of my most joyful realizations was how much more fun my childhood looked via my pictures than what I remember in my mind.
I’m not quite sure why my mind had put such a downward spin on my past, but I now realize that I did have quite a bit of fun growing up.
There are so many pictures of my friends and me being goofy when we were younger and that was so nice to see.
Getting rid of all the extra stuff that didn’t bring me joy in this category has been very uplifting. While I still have some work to do, I am feeling very positive about the results.
A final quote from Marie Kondo on sentimental items is this: “No matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past. The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important.”
In this, she is so right. Being here, in the present, and truly focusing on the current moment, is where life happens.
Take the Challenge With Me!
My plans for the rest of this week are to flip through my two diaries and finish sorting through my massive pile of photo albums.
Going forward, I anticipate a few more gaps in between my Marie Kondo Tidy Challenge articles. The next two weeks are focused on finding everything a home and bringing joy into your home.
These parts I know will be a bit more time-consuming than the early parts of the challenge.
For example, I know in our kitchen we have found everything a home, but I still need to get dividers for some of our drawers to really keep them organized.
Finding the right dividers and having them arrive will take a while. Similarly, finding ways to showcase my favorite things around the house or find new ones to replace things that do not bring me joy will take a while.
When I do finally get to a good point (hopefully in the next few months), I will finish writing the articles on the last two weeks of the challenge.
The good part about the challenge is that it is okay to not finish it in the set 8-week time frame. Marie Kondo’s general rule is to tidy within a quick period of time, which I believe can last up to a year.
If you’re participating, how is your tidying going? Do you hold on to a lot of sentimental items from your past? If so, let us know one thing you found from your childhood that brought you joy!
