They struggle, I struggle, we all struggle.
…To decide what times to toss that we feel nostalgic about.
Not only is it difficult for me to do with my own items, but I often struggle on whether or not to push my clients harder to get rid of nostalgic items.
It’s hard for me to be in their head and know exactly how much it means to them, like, I wish I had a nostalgia meter where I could scan them, get a number, and then have a better gauge at how hard to question them so that they lean more towards tossing.
For instance, if they are a 1, then I know they aren’t really that connected to the item, but if they are a 10, then I should just let them keep it and also help them find a way to display the item in their home because they clearly care about the connection to the item.
Well, this blog has inspired me to create this scale and make a meter like this. Stay tuned!
At the end of the day, it’s just hard. Sadly I don’t have the answer as to whether we should keep or toss. That’s up to the client at the end of the day, and there are things, and ways to help better make a decision.
However, a great perspective to take is to remember that you’re not going to be buried with your things, so does it really matter? More often than not we won’t actually miss an item we haven’t seen in 3 years. It’s not the item you care about, it’s the person and people that you feel connected to through the item. Let’s do our best to appreciate those people, not the thing.