Getting rid of things with emotional value is the toughest. And we are talking only of things, mind you. Perhaps the objects with the highest emotional value are photographs. Professional organiser Ingrid Jansen has a few pieces of advice on www.goodhousekeeping.com.
She asks you to start by sorting your pictures and keeping them aside from other items like letters and ornaments. Then you “sub-categorise” your photos.
“Would you like to create a photo album of the best photos, a frame for the wall, or make a pin board? Is it important to have it either in time order, per family, or is it just nice to have it all together?” she asks.
The clients find it easier to decide what they really want to keep after such categorisation.
Then the other rules of letting go follow. “First discard all the blurry ones, photos of people you don’t know, and photos of scenery apart from the one perfect view. The rest can go.
“The ones you keep, you can stick in an album or put in a photo box per year or per holiday. For every category ‘less is more’ is true. Picking out the best of the best makes you appreciate what you have.”
Making digital copies reduces clutter further, but it feels better to keep hard copies, right, even if that takes up space?
