MOMania

By JJ

June 14, 2007 8:20 AM | Link to this

Good Morning Theresa, I too am a keeper of sentimental things. My mother saved a few of my baby clothes, and a couple of pair of my baby shoes, and after I had my daughter, she gave me these items, and my daughter wore them too. I have the cutest pictures of me in the clothes, and her in the clothes at the same age…..too cute.

But yes, I have saved all my daughter’s teeth, her first hair from her first cut, my first Mother’s Day present (her fingerprint, age 3 months). That kind of stuff, artwork, etc. I cannot find it in myself to give away her crib bumper guards. Not that I will ever use them again, but maybe for a grandbaby…..

Yes, I’m a keeper, but not a hoarder. Big difference there……

By One

June 14, 2007 8:30 AM | Link to this

This is how people end up on “Clean Sweep” and other shows like that……….or just living like the people on these shows. I can’t stand clutter, and keeping (eventually) 18+ yrs of stuff for one child, let alone multiple children, is crazy. Yes, keep some momentos, but every assignment? every toy? every piece of clothing?…….which by the waay could be donated to some child who is less fortunate!! That is the sign of a ridiculously cluttered home.

By Fulton County Mom

June 14, 2007 8:35 AM | Link to this

I have a few things from babyhood (first shoes, bring home outfit, etc)in a box….art work/school stuff is different. I have them each put it in a drawer…every 6 months we look at the drawer to see what we really love…somethings that are holiday specific are carefully wrapped with the other items for that holiday and only brought out that one time a year. Somethings in the drawer tend to ‘fall out’ and get ripped up…if you didn’t take care of it you didn’t love it…out it goes.

With toys it is similar, once they are broken they get tossed. I will keep a few ‘favorite’ items when their use is outgrown however most get purged.

Clothes I do this way, if it is a favorite outfit I make sure we get a photo of them in it, usually at an event. Then we can purge the clothes (photos are so much easier to transport, plus of course CDs).

We do scrapbooks of sort, more like journals, and I keep those….

By Kerry

June 14, 2007 8:51 AM | Link to this

My mom kept a few clothing items and maybe some school work. I’m not sure where most of it is though. She still had the dress that I wore home from the hospital and my daughter wore it home from the hospital too (maybe one day her daughter will also!). We’ve kept her school work, even the stuff that is just her scribbles on construction paper. She’s only 2, so we don’t have that much collected yet. We’ve kept all of her clothes, but it’s because I have a feeling that we’ll have all girls. Morgan has enough clothes to donate 3/4 of it and still have enough that we wouldn’t need to wash anything for three weeks. She’s the only grandchild so far and I think my mom buys her something new every time she goes to the store. But, once we’re done having children (not sure how many we’ll have) I’m planning on donating most of what we have. I might keep a few favorites, but there’s no reason to keep everything.

By JJ

June 14, 2007 8:59 AM | Link to this

I don’t keep everything, just the precious things.

My daughter wrote me a poem for my birthday two years ago (she was 14). I will NEVER throw it away.

Since I only have the one child, there isn’t alot of clutter, and I seriously doubt I will ever be on “Clean Sweep”. I don’t like clutter. I have all my “keeps” tucked away in boxes, etc.

By Jennifer

June 14, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this

I keep art with handprint/fingerprint/footprints and photos. Each of my girls has a nice flat storage box that fits under their beds and I archive their art in that box. I do display their art for a while, then toss it when it’s replaced by new stuff.

I don’t keep a lot of clothing. I have the outfits worn home from the hospital, the caps and t-shirts they were dressed in after they were born, and a few little sentimental outfits. I kept a pair of infant socks so that they can see how tiny their feet were. Those are in a document protector inside their baby books.

I can’t bring myself to get rid of their crib. We have plenty of storage room so I’ll keep it.

I don’t keep any plastic toys. I will keep special dolls and nicer wooden toys that can be handed down to their kids and grandkids.

By MP

June 14, 2007 9:15 AM | Link to this

I had kept every piece of clothing for my first two girls until I had a garage sale and was chatting with a man whose wife was due with a little girl. He said that he was hoping that we had baby clothes when we stopped and was surprised that we didn’t have anything. All of a sudden I realized that it was silly to hoard old clothes. I picked out the few special outfits that I didn’t want to part with and gave him the rest. Four years later we had another little girl. She wore a few of the special outfits but would not have wore all of the clothes because of size/season differences. There is no reason to hoard old clothes and toys. If I want to think of how little my girls were I will just go to Target and look at a newborn outfit. We were all small once.

As for keeping toys, a special stuffed animal is fine for keeping but legos or my little pony dolls are a no go. Why would someone keep everything? Maybe that is why both parents have to work now. They need a huge house just to house all of their kids junk.

By Ms. Jones

June 14, 2007 9:39 AM | Link to this

I kept all the Beanie Babies (and other momentos). The hours we spent looking for them, the fun we had together looking for them. Our most prized one is the Princess Diana beanie baby. They are all wrapped up and in a box in my closet, and we just recently opened them, and had quite a laugh, and strolled down memory lane. I have also kept certain baby outfits. The outfit my daughter came home in, now sits on her favorite baby doll on a shelf in her room. It amazes me everytime I look at it, that she was once that tiny. I have all the hand made items from my baby shower, blankets, etc.

By Andrea Yates

June 14, 2007 10:00 AM | Link to this

I kept everything my little angels ever wore. Including what they were wearing when mommy drowned them. To death. They were certainly “less fortunate” that day, weren’t they?

By attached to some stuff but hate clutter

June 14, 2007 10:11 AM | Link to this

Great topic and very timely for me as I am trying to get motivated to clean out my foot locker and some boxes of stuff. I have no kids or anyone who could possibly be interested in my old stuff from the 50s, plus I hate clutter. However, I find it difficult to get rid of mementoes from my own childhood like the Oz books I used to read, high school and college yearbooks, my childhood horse statue collection. I just think in the back of my mind “someday” I will want one last look at it all just to remind myself who I was (I haven’t looked in decades). But I hate having a lot of stuff around; it’s just more stuff to cart around to my next residence or for some poor soul to go thru after I’m gone. What to do, what to do?

By Ms. Jones

June 14, 2007 10:14 AM | Link to this

My mother recently came to my house and brought a packet of things I had not seen since I was younger. One of the items was a letter my father had written to me on my 18th birthday (he passed away several years ago). It brought tears to our eyes, and I couldn’t read it, she had to read it to me. That was about a month ago, and I still cannot look at that letter, his handwriting and thoughts, without tearing up. I am so glad she saved that letter, because I totally forgot about it.

Other things in that packet was a picture of me when I was about 10 years old, modeling the latest “Camp Fire Girl” uniforms……too funny.

By delca

June 14, 2007 10:15 AM | Link to this

I have two daughters ages 9 and 10. I have saved their baby teeth, certificates, class work and old videos(barney,dora,looney toon cartoons,etc). My mother threw away things of mine. I still cringe when I think about a series of comic books I had drawn that got thrown out with the trash!!! Not all of my daughters stuff gets saved, however, there are some things that are priceless (paper mache school bus) that I will never throw out ever!!! I want my children to be able to view and share childhood treasures.I am a sentimental saver!!!

By goodness!!!!!!

June 14, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this

AY - You are just cruel.

By Koz

June 14, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this

I saved all my 70’s Star Wars toys and the original packaging backs.

Unfortunately my mom threw out the packaging but I still have most of the toys.

I saved my 80’s Transformers too, but my mom threw them out before a recent move =(

By Stacey

June 14, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this

I confess to being one of those people that “One” talked about. I have a ridiculous amount of sentimental things of my son’s. Periodically, my husband will go through what he calls my “Important S**t” and purge it. 98% of the time I can’t even tell what he threw away. When I try to purge it myself, I will throw away one or two things and that’s it. I’m not like that with my own stuff, just my son’s.

By Opinionated

June 14, 2007 11:03 AM | Link to this

I’ve kept some of things of my daughter’s. I kept a couple of really cute outfits from when she was a baby. I also kept a couple of outfits that she wanted to keep because someone special gave them to her. I also keep some of her homework, assignments, projects and tests that she either did really well on or really poorly on (to keep her humble) from each year. The schoolwork/homework, etc., each year goes into a manila folder and is tied to keep them from falling out. I’ve kept this stuff for her to go through when she gets older (I will give it all to her if she wants it) to remember and reminisce over. Overall, however, I can’t stand clutter so if I have a place to put it then I keep it otherwise it’s gone!

By that 70's dude

June 14, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this

i still got the atari, the star wars dudes, the gi-joes, and the baseball cards and memorabilia. will sell to the highest bidder.

By Lynn

June 14, 2007 1:33 PM | Link to this

I saved everything my girls made me at school & favorite outfits from when they were little but the vicious ex husband won’t give me the first baby picture or momento of any of them, even after 7 years split. It kinda feels like losing every thing in a fire but at least I know they still exist. Courts ordered him to turn over everything but I don’t have the heart to lock him up for ignoring the order, so in the meantime I keep hoping he’ll soften up & every now & then my girls will sneak me a picture when they go to see him.

By FCM

June 14, 2007 1:43 PM | Link to this

Lynn,

I put everything I wanted in a ‘safe’ place BEFORE he came in to pack it up…..I have all the photos….he wanted the electronics and furniture….Never asked for even a photo of his kids until years later…..I am so sorry for you hon, the kids love seeing the home videos and photos…..

I am going to count myself lucky now.

By JJ

June 14, 2007 1:53 PM | Link to this

Lynn My brother’s ex wife did just about the same thing to him. When she moved out, she picked and chose what she wanted to take, including going through his bedside table, and taking all of his favorite things the kids had made, pictures, etc. She took it all, including HIS birth certificate. He went through h3ll trying to get that back from the B-tch….

By Jennifer

June 14, 2007 2:07 PM | Link to this

Making copies of photos is so easy and cheap now. It’s just cruel to take those memories from another parent. My parents fought over the photo album when they divorced years ago. I got it from my mom and scanned in everything and had copies made for my dad. It’s a good idea to do that anyway in case of a fire or some other disaster.

By mama Deb

June 14, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this

When my children were at home I saved lots of their things. When they moved out and it was time to move to a smaller place I asked them to take their stuff. They chose not to. Since they were not attached to their things I decided it didn’t have that much value. I have memories and pictures to cherish, plus the love of my children and that is enough.

By Ammie

June 14, 2007 2:38 PM | Link to this

My friend takes photographs of her children’s artwork and files them in a simple scrapbook. Then she doesn’t have the problem of storing all the art, but has something to remember it by. Great idea!

By JJ

June 14, 2007 3:05 PM | Link to this

Ammie Good point, but I would much rather HOLD that piece of artwork, done by those tiny little hands, than look at a picture of it. Pictures sometimes don’t do justice…….

My mom has the ugliest pencil holder I made her when I was in pre-K (44 years ago). It is made out of a lump of clay, painted green, and has a stick sticking out of it, and holes I made with my fingers for pencils. Still to this day, it sits on her dresser. A picture wouldn’t be the same, and it would be filed away somewhere in the garage in a box. She also has several Christmas ornaments both my brother and I made in elementary school. She still puts them up on her tree. I don’t think a picture would look as good on the tree.

By Dwayne

June 14, 2007 3:23 PM | Link to this

I know the feeling. Not being able to let go of stuff that you have a mental hold on. The one thing people don’t realize is that all this stuff that you keep is just stuff someone else will have to get rid of once you pass away. I learned that lesson once my mother passed away and I had to get rid of a lot of stuff that probably meant something to her and I didn’t know about it so I gave it to goodwill.

By abc

June 14, 2007 3:41 PM | Link to this

I save nothing, sentimental nostalgia isn’t my thing. Or maybe the opposite is true, but rather than sit about with my pouty lip sticking out remembering the “good ol’ days”, “awwwww, isn’t that sweet”, I try to stay focused on the present instead. The future is now, the past is dead!

My ex took all the photos, all the movies, all that sort, and I don’t have a problem with that.

By faye

June 14, 2007 3:56 PM | Link to this

Cute topic!

I have a tendency to hoard, but both my husband and my fear of being one those on “Clean Sweep” help temper that.

I have hair from first haircuts only, and all the baby teeth. I kept bracelets and hats from the hospital (they are in their baby books) but no umbilical cords or anything like that!

As far as school work goes, I kept a few things that were written and would reflect them at that age (about Me kind of letters, Mother’s Day notes, stuff like that) and the final report card from each year, as well as any certificates. I also kept things with hand prints - they get a big kick out of seeing how little they once were.

As far as clothing goes, only things that were made by my mom were kept, and even at that, it was only special things (First Communion dress, etc).

Finally, with toys, we had a standing rule of get rid of one every time you got a new one - that was mostly useful for getting rid of all those horrible toys from Happy Meals. Anyway, my kids are older now, and out of the toy stage, but we kept my daughters American Girl doll and all accessories, as well as her Barbie collection. For my son we kept all of his Star Wars toys, Matchbox cars, and his Legos. Those are boxed up in the attic and will make an appearance sometime in the future when there are grandchildren ready to play with them. Not only do those have sentimental value, but they are timeless toys.

By JJ

June 14, 2007 3:59 PM | Link to this

Abc That’s kinda sad. You must have had a lousy past.

I did the baby calendar the first year of my daughter’s life. Every year on her birthday, we take it out and look at it. I still forget some of the milestones, but as soon as I see them again, I fell happy all over……

We forget so much during our lives, and it’s nice to go back and remember parts of your life you may have forgotten.

By Urbanhousewife

June 14, 2007 5:17 PM | Link to this

I “wanted” to keep all the things my son did/wore, etc…but I didn’t. I kept the sentimental ones, and kept a few boxes of his cute preschool work. I thought why keep it? Other’s would get use from the toys/clothes. Then life threw me a curve, and I had another boy 8yrs later. For about a month I kicked myself for ditching the stuff while I tried to refurnish a nursery & gather clothes…then life threw another curve & this child was not even CLOSE to the sizes of the clothes I had kept. I just would have been frustrated trying to use all the stuff I’d “saved” for no good reason. I keep reminding myself to pass it forward to someone who can use the stuff in the here & now.

By Glenda

June 14, 2007 5:38 PM | Link to this

I kept all of my son’s transformers, hot wheels, G.I. joes and special stuffed animals from TV cartoon series. The idea was that when I sold them at a garage sale he got the money for them.

By deidreNC

June 15, 2007 6:50 AM | Link to this

i keep some stories my kids wrote throughout their school years…i rarely keep clothes..i started to with great intentions of making each kid a quilt from their childhood clothes…lol..ive never made a quilt:)..i finally took it all to a goodwill place…my best friend had a daughter who died at a very young age…she had kept her coming home from the hospital outfit and gave it to my oldest daughter for her 1st coming home from the hospital…we keep that….after my father died i received a box with ‘stuff’ in it…there was little essays i wrote as a child for school…pics etc…it was awesome getting all that stuff…plus it made me feel great that my dad had saved it…actually it was probably my mom who did (she died when i was 20)—-i dug out some old essays from my oldest daughter once and she loved it that i saved it plus she really enjoyed reading it all…so some things are great to save…i would never save legos as i hate them…they really hurt when you step on one :(…

By fk

June 15, 2007 8:36 AM | Link to this

My son was a Batman fanatic from the age of 2 to 7. I saved the Bat Cave, the Batmobile, the action figures. I also saved his Legos sets. He was a Lego-maniac. I saved his Matchbox and HotWheels cars, too. I saved his favorite books. I have a lot of his early art stuff and writings from special occasions. Most importantly, in my opinion, I saved his blanket. I still have my blanket. My husband was a bit concerned when he discovered it shortly after we married.

By abc

June 15, 2007 8:39 AM | Link to this

I’ve had a very happy past, JJ, I just don’t dwell on it! Some folks like home movies, others are bored by them. My kids (ages 17-26) have heard stories about when they were younger enough times that even they are bored by them.

By 123

June 15, 2007 9:06 AM | Link to this

Easy to see why you had a failed marriage, abc; who would want to live with a heartless beech? You and “Andrea Yates” should do lunch.

By lovelyliz

June 15, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this

My sister has a small chest where she keeps all her daughter’s keepsakes. If the chest gets full and she wants to save something new, something comes out. She’s able to keep what is important without going overboard.

By Becky

June 15, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this

I actually don’t have children, but my nephew has twins b/g(5yo) that me & my husband have taken over as grandparents for. I have some clothes that I will keep for them, like the first outfit that both wore for their first Christmas..He’s into Thomas, so I will keep most of those for him..She’s more into jewerly, so yes I’ll keep some of that for her..I do have some school work that I’ll keep..I too also fear being on clean sweep,so I won’t keep all of their stuff..As someone else said, it’s nice to go back & remember certain things..

By DB

June 15, 2007 3:29 PM | Link to this

None of the rest of you need to worry — if “Clean Sweep” comes to town, mine will be the first they will pick sigh! I HATE to throw away kid’s mementos (although I did draw the line at saving the umbilical cord…euw!), and my only saving grace is that I switched to digital photography 10 years ago. Otherwise, the number of photos would have drowned me by now! Boxes, baby books, scrapbooks, etc. — you name it, I’ve tried to organize it! I just know how much I loved sifting through my baby and early childhood stuff, and assumed that my kids would be the same. But the 16 YO daughter is ruthless — she really needs to be a professional organizer, she can toss with no regrets, I envy her that trait! I’ve even been known to sneak into her “pitch” piles and slip out a book or two, reasoning, “Oh, surely she didn’t mean to throw THIS book out — she LOVED this book!” It’s pathetic, really.

My son, OTOH, has every swim ribbon he ever won, starting at age 5 (he’s 18 … ), and a huge notebook with every school award certificate in those plastic pages. Ah, a man after my own heart! And don’t even look sideways at his “Animorphs” collection if you want to live. And, yes, we still have the original pirate ship he built with Legos 10 years ago!

Did I mention books? Omigod … I could open a library. Both the husband and I, and the kids, too, love books, and re-read constantly. It has to be a real yawner for me to give a book away!

Clothes, though, I love to sell at yard sales and give away. I only kept their going-home outfits and a couple of tiny little shoes. Oh, and that hand-knit cashmere baby blanket, because, after all, it is cashmere … Luckily, the christening gown is a family heirloom that’s almost 110 years old, so there’s no question about saving IT!