Minimalism at Any Age

With the prospect of down sizing in the near future, I decided to tackle my photo albums.  I thought I would start out on a small project that would not mess up the house with piles of junk as I sorted and sifted.  What I didn't count on was the sorting and sifting through the memories.

Now, I know that most of these photos can be digitized and I am a big fan of the digital photography world where mistakes get caught and hidden before any money is spent!  But how do you decide which actual printed picture to toss and which one to save?  Really?!  Throwing out pictures of adorable grandchildren in several stages of birthday cake smeared from top to toe is almost like drowning puppies - well, maybe not but you get my drift.

The sheer size of my collection (which does not even include the old pictures of my own daughters childhood - those will be tougher) was enough to set my head spinning off my head exorcist style.  The family room couch was soon littered with piles of pictures I was systematically removing from albums by year.  I soon realized I would need to use some envelope system if I ever wanted to sit on the couch again within the month!  It soon became evident which years I had kids coming home for visits and which years contained weddings and births!  The height of the pile soon dictated the emotional investment as well.  So, now I have this little project spread out over every empty surface available.  Do I sort into kid-designated albums or just by year and deal with that later? Do I just keep it chronological and make subsequent albums?  Do I use themes  like grand kids or Christmas or ?  Yikes!

But, with iron willpower, I am moving forward to get this done by the end of February.  Every last printed picture is going into a well-defined album - I will not divulge the chosen system as I would hate to give away all my secrets to any child of mine checking out my blog today - but, it shall happen and memories will remain intact!  Sweet cherubs will continue to smile up at Grandma and saucy munchkins will continue to frown!  Daughter, Mother, Grandmother - photos contain the pixels of those moments but my heart, it is so much bigger than any hard drive - it contains the memories!

And I have only just begun.  Next - the kitchen!   Graduation Day must be just around the corner if I can commit to that gigantic downsize! Minimalist Grandma - here I come!

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/accomplishment-minimalist-kitchen/