Are you sentimental? Re-use those containers

Laura posted about re-using containers some time back so I decided to show you how I've re-used some in my home.

We received matching souvenir mugs like these from San Antonio, Texas. They're a bit too big to actually use for tea or coffee so I keep my sweetener, different tea bags and coffees, and a chocolate spoon for hot chocolate in here.


When the babies were born, we got tons of flowers. Once I threw out the flowers, I washed out the containers (not all of them, but the nice-looking ones) and re-used.

This one holds bum creme, etc. at the babies' changing table.

and this one is in the bathroom with baby bath toiletries

Not only are these containers now functional, but every time I use them I think of the people who gave them to us.

Are you hanging onto something sentimental? Think about some ways you can re-use it so that it's not just clutter.

Where do you store your memories?

This is a picture of my memory box.

It's slightly bigger than A4 (printer paper size). I have an A4 folder in there with my goals from every year since 1998 (nerdy, I know, but that's me!), which is when I started setting goals properly.

I have some birthday, Christmas, and anniversary cards, notes from people, etc. in there. Of course I don't keep everything and when the box starts getting too full, I go through it and see what I can let go of.

This works for me because I'm restricting my memories to a container and creating a physical boundary.

How do you store your memories?

Honour the memory, not the item

On Friday in the Declutter Challenge, I wrote about sentimentality, which is why a lot of us hang onto stuff.

Kristin wrote a beautiful comment on that post so I went over to read her story.

It's beautiful, beautiful and I ask that you go and read the story of her wedding dress here.

Declutter by taking pictures

I bought this bottle of water for 1 Ringgit at a tiny shop on a monorail station in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in Oct 2006.

Just looking at that bottle brings back all sorts of memories - how hot and humid it was that day, what I was wearing (tiny shorts and a sleeveless top), how tired I was of walking at that point, how cool the water was and how I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel to put up my feet and have a nice cup of tea.

This bottle travelled all the way back to South Africa with me and has been my gym companion once a week since then, more or less. In case you're worrying about my cleanliness, yes, I did wash it out :)

I finally decided to throw it out the other day but first I took a picture so I could remember the story behind it :-)

And I said all that to say this.

If you're hanging onto STUFF because you feel sentimental about them, take a picture (yes, seriously), blog it or just write something in your journal and let it go. Like I did here with my shoes.

What do you need to let go of? It can be something small, something big, anything.