Do you have things you just can’t bear to throw away? give away? or sell?

For those of us who’ve clung tight to objects that have meaning to only ourselves, I have a solution that’s worked perfectly for me! And for the first time in my life, I actually ‘thunk’ up something really smart and useful.

For real. No lie.

What ‘stuff’ are you clinging to?

Some of you in the midst of downsizing, or trying to downsize your elderly parent to a smaller home, will understand my problem and solution.

Have you ever held on to something for decades?

Something that has no value to anyone else but you?

Something you’ve moved from home to home and stored in the basement or attic, only to be moved once again?

That’s me. I’ve kept almost ALL the shoes my kids wore from the time they were born through their early school years.

Yup. I’m not kidding. You’ve read correctly.

Whatever DNA it is that causes you to keep children’s shoes in their original boxes long after they’re worn or too small, I have it. It actually made no intellectual sense at all, not even to me. So it musta been a glitch in my chromosomes somewhere.

Press re-wind, and go back a few months before I had to start downsizing for real. I mean urgently downsizing. Click here for more on downsizing.

I was taking a course at the local community college to learn how to use the digital camera I always used on the ‘point and shoot’ setting. At the end of the course we were required to turn in a portfolio of photos that told a story, in no more than 8 images.

You probably know where this is going.

My old trunks of even older baby shoes were staring at me. I had my story. Took my photos. Turned in my portfolio (and even got a decent grade).

That’s when the i-have-a-great-idea-light-bulb went off (on??).

I’ve always loved a high light, white background in photos, and remembered the professor describing white paper on a table, next to the window, with a $5 spotlight from Home Depot as a make shift studio.

Saving without Keeping

So I got to work, pretending to be the greatest of the great photographers in my studio (dining room table), but this time for a different purpose. I shot multiple photos of each pair of the precious shoes I just couldn’t throw in the trash. Step two was to design my book on Shutterfly (one of those online photo gift companies) Click here to access Shutterfly

If I can do it, anyone can. Trust me.

And of course, I was patient, and waited for the photo books to go on sale before ordering.

I remember when my book arrived in the mail 10 days later, and I sat down to eat up every page. Not unlike a 4 year old, I musta looked at that book 10 times, turning the pages over and over.

My first reaction was elation! I had all my children’s shoes in an 8″x8″ book that was accessible at the reach of an arm. And I could look at them everyday.

My second thought was the promise I’d made to myself ~ face my fear of physically carrying them out to the side of the house and throwing them in the trash. I’ll always remember lifting the lid and throwing them in. It was a tough thing to do, but so much easier now that I had my book to look at anytime I wanted. I just held my breath and did it (in several trips!)

As I write this post, I have the book right next to me. Those shoes were symbols of the memories in a piece of my heart, and now I have those memories on my living room table.

I have so many plans to take so many photos for my collection of ‘valuable stuff books’. I highly recommend you try this and see how it works for you or your loved one. What a great gift to take to that apartment, assisted living, or wherever home is next.

How could you use this idea? What comes to mind first? An old shirt that belonged to your dad? All the dog collars that belonged to those four legged family members? As long as it has value to you, it’s worthy of a photo in a book.

My brain doesn’t generate good ideas very often, but this one is a winner! I feel like I came through a powerful UNcomfort zone with a great solution!

Happy to help ♥ Carol

P.S. You wanna know what I did next? I ordered 4 more copies for Christmas . . . one for each one of my grown kids! I killed a lot of stones with that bird.

Let me know what you think either as a comment below, or by clicking the FB icon (below) to my Facebook page.

P.S. You don’t need anything more than the camera on your phone. Let me know if you need any specific help!