What sentimental things do you keep?

[Schmosby]

I decided today to go through the last of my junk that I've collected over the years, I've had several goes at it already, throwing large amounts away each time but had 3 boxes of papers and a couple of boxes of assorted junk left.

I got to my old birthday cards and letters from ex's. I feel like I should probably keep them out of sentiment, however I am going to throw them away, as attaching feeling to objects is illogical, I can still remember the sentiment without an object.

When mum dies I will be throwing everything away of hers, including photos from childhood etc. other than what my brother takes.

This got me thinking, what do you guys keep or throw? photos? jewellery? cards? letters?

My mum is very different from me. She places importance on anything bought or given to her. If someone gave her their old can opener when they bought a new one, she would treat that object as a marker of how loved she is, therefore when it breaks she would still want to keep it and would say she can't throw it away as X bought it for her.

[AireleeBray]

photos to me are very precious.
Same for my mum, i know she has 2 huge plastic boxes full of photo envelopes that contain mine & my brothers whole childhood.
I guess it will be my children that will someday chuck them cause i couldnt.

I also get attached to teddies.
and ive kept most of my childrens birthday cards, i think it will be nice for them to see my grandparents had written cards.

[A Whimsical Stranger]

I'm not overly sentimental about objects but I keep a few things that are important to me. I have a jumper knitted by my grandmother (now dead) for my then newborn son, a few photographs, I have a big box full of my son's paintings and drawings which is always lovely to look back on. He brought home some jotters and an art folder from school the other week which I will also keep.

Okay, I'm quite sentimental. But there is a purpose to it. It's interesting seeing his art and handwriting improve over time, even now compared to when he started school, the difference is astounding.

[Blackflies]

I can be pretty sentimental, from keeping Christmas and birthday cards throughout the years, to calenders, to cards off flowers etc. However, in the last couple of years i've realised keeping this sort of stuff in the loft where you don't even look at it, just know it's there, is effectively just hoarding and sometimes as much i'm not very good at letting go, it does feel much better to throw this stuff out than keep it cluttering around gathering dust. I have a lot of my old toys in the lost too, which I am debating clearing out. Not sure if i'd regret it though.

I cut my dog's hair when they died as a coping mechanism and still have it 9 years later. I thought this was normal until a boyfriend took great humour in my dedicated 'shrine' to them. I now have their hair kept a little more discreetly in little trinket boxes above my wardrobe because I don't relish at the prospect of another man looking at me as if i've got a hoard of ex's buried in the back yard. I can't let go but i'm no Ed Gein.

[Toxic]

I've got some birthday cards kept in a drawer from me parents, I've got a couple of extra things that went along with bigger birthdays, like a tankard and stuff for my 18th/21st whatever

Not sure I've really got anything else, not big on photos (I literally won't have a single photo of my parents when they are gone) .they probably have some of me when I was younger tucked away but we've never gone in for the whole family photo things.

I actually kept something from an ex for ages but that went in the last great "binning"

I don't have anything from my childhood apart from an Amiga 500 stashed away in the loft

[Schmosby]

Originally Posted by Blackflies

I cut my dog's hair when they died as a coping mechanism and still have it 9 years later. I thought this was normal until a boyfriend took great humour in my dedicated 'shrine' to them. I now have their hair kept a little more discreetly in little trinket boxes above my wardrobe because I don't relish at the prospect of another man looking at me as if i've got a hoard of ex's buried in the back yard. I can't let go but i'm no Ed Gein.

I was thinking earlier that me keeping my cats ashes is a pretty sentimental thing, since ashes are meaningless really, but it does give me comfort too. I keep the ashes in cat urns, so I guess you wouldn't know unless you were told.

[anewyear]

I'm not too fussed about sentimental things although my Mrs is. One of my favourite things though is a pair of slippers my son had when he was about 4. They're quite distinctive and he wore them all the time so it's pretty much part of him

[Deer]

Memories of when I have ****ed up and have been an arsehole to remind myself how shit it felt and to avoid as best I can from going there again.

[Mr. Nobody]

I still keep and wear a T-shirt my dad got at a conference many many moons ago,
It has writing on it on a subject close to him,
He's dead over 12 years now, but I still wear it as a memory of him and a cause he was passionate about.

[Rocket Spud]

The condom in my wallet i've had since my teens.

[Deer]

Originally Posted by HermannHesse

I'm trying to be less sentimental, because I don't think it is an unquestionably positive trait. It is hard to now discard certain things, because I feel like they should mean something to me (and partly I am trying to convince myself that they do) but it's hard to see what.

It strikes me that sentimentality, in terms of a respect for one's past, understanding of one's personal development, and a cataloguing of significant milestones, is not in itself bad thing. But there is a thin line between that and a fruitless grasping for happier or more satisfying times. I'm not sure where the following fits. I have struggled to dispose of school reports; mix tapes given to me in my teens; notes left on my front door by an early (and all too rare) girlfriend; books I enjoyed when I had clocked up fewer years than I had fingers; birthday party invitations and cards from a time when I was, amazingly, quite a popular boy. I have all this junk, and I don't know why I can't just trash it. Because it is obviously meaningless trash.

I don't have a great memory for the past but I do have an astonishing memory for scents and smells. As such, certain smells from my past - i.e. the faint scent of burning metal from the bushes of a scaletrix car, the slightly noxious scent of 25 year old silly putty, etc. - immediately poke at the very furthest reaches of my memory. The deeper I breathe in the scents, the more I am yanking at the locked drawers of previously forgotten moments. There is a significance there, but I'm not entirely really sure what. The smells remind me of the past.

Putting that to one side, though. It's all junk. I know it is. Sentimentality is a ridiculous emotion. For starters, sentimentality is a sign of high estrogen levels, so not good for any man to show signs of or to indulge in. There is no rational reason for keeping any of this clutter that I have and have, in some instances, carried through life to hold onto still today. None of it, ultimately, means anything or has any actual value. E.g: The party invitations of my youth came from those who would no longer recognise me in the street (and if they did, I'd run so as to avoid the stress of conversation). The mementos I have from the rare girlfriend mask the reality that I ended up trapped in a loveless cycle of embarrassment and disappointment. Etc, etc. I hold onto - or more accurately, I struggle to let go off - trinkets from the past that actually rarely tell a truly positive story. The objects from the past are held onto, turned over in one's hands, and inspected from all angles - almost desperately clawing for an essence that was never actually there and therefore can't be recovered. Rose tinted glasses and all that.

What I want to do, although I won't, is to burn everything. To cut all ties, to obliterate all current memories, to trash everything I have and reset and reboot my existence elsewhere entirely.

Examples:

A 1986 invitation to Wimpy. I was shit scared of Mr Wimpy for some reason, and used to hide under the tables until he buggered of. Everyone found that amusing. The party invitations remind me of that. How shy and awkward I've always been.

A guest pass for the Manics and my first ever gig (Space). I miss the times that I enjoyed music. It is all, like everything else to me know, stuck in barely perciple low volume and greyscale.

A sketch of the Robot from Lost In Space, I loved this stupid show when I was about 7. I have folders full of all of my childhood scribblings. It's all good for the bin.
https://ibb.co/6txTz8Z

Original arkangel issues, which I used to write for, and other ALF publications
Not with me here.

This old school bag. My back then was not much bigger than my hand is now. That's a weird thought - that I was once a growing boy with potential. Now I'm a grown up ugly useless manlet with none.
https://ibb.co/P5rVzhX

25+ year old Fart Putty. As above. The smell of this takes me back to some stuff that happened in my bedroom when I was very young. I'm not sure whether that disturbs or delights me.
https://ibb.co/7njKyMC

Lots of TMNT comics (sample):
https://ibb.co/2YwTkMn

A book from a girl. The book is No More Again, sequel to Prozac Nation, and it's utter shite, but I can't bring myself to throw it away as it's one of the only things I have that remind me of her.
https://ibb.co/JzQy4Tr

This farm set, which my dad crafted (most of it) for me.
https://ibb.co/VvpL3Vv

Lots of childhood books, toys, etc. Including eg Mini Boglins, which remind of a period in my life when I had friends who wanted to play with me.
https://ibb.co/LdLLmK1

Loads of other shit. It's all junk. I need to arrange a skip or a bonfire and weep one final tear before I exit this shitty world.

I'm pretty stoned right now and I feel proper appreciative that you shared this reminiscence,whether your reason for doing so was or wasn't. Really enjoyed reading that man!

[Deer]

Originally Posted by Rocket Spud

The condom in my wallet i've had since my teens.

You gotta throw that away man! Just go bareback if it does happen haha

[Deer]

Originally Posted by biscuits

Oh, I try to be sentimental... but I lose things easily.

I've got things from when I was baby and child, but that's because my Mum has put them in a drawer. And I keep gig tickets, but they're not in a central place and I wouldn't be able to tell you where they are.

I'm not the sort of person who would make a scrap book or a box of memories.

When I was a child I used to want to keep everything... like when John Major wrote a letter to me after I wrote an angry one to him about fox hunting and when Greenpeace wrote to me. I really wanted to be in Greenpeace, like you wouldn't believe.

We used to have to write letters at school (I must have been Year 5) and for some reason I'd always be the one in the class that people would reply to.

Who knows what I've done with those though. Child me would be so cross with adult me for this.

I don't think I have things to be sentimental about :/

And you too, Biscuits. You are another great writer. Like, when I read your posts, I instantly get a sense of who you are. Well maybe not who you are but you make it easy for someone to imagine what you are.

I've just read back on that and have no idea if that will make an ounce of sense to you lol

[Rocket Spud]

Originally Posted by Deer

You gotta throw that away man! Just go bareback if it does happen haha

Excellent advice there, Johnny!

[Deer]

Am I being overly sentimental? Lol

[Rocket Spud]

No, i think you went the other way a touch there!

[Deer]

Mate, when I am just about to have sex, all I'm thinking is, 'is this really happening?' Haha

[Deer]

And hoping nothing goes wrong from the time we get naked until the time I get the heavenly confirmation that I am indeed having sex lol

[Deer]

And no I don't mean up my arse before anyone says that haha

[Rocket Spud]

How much have smoked, Johnny?

[Deer]

I'd probably had about five by then lol I do enjoy a smoke. Its just difficult knowing whether people are understanding my daftness because I'm on a different wavelength lol

[T]

Have a plastic box full of Gig/festival tickets, Festival programmes

Places i've visited collecting information
Beer festival programmes

[Percy]

I still have my first teddy, although he's actually a brown rabbit with a yellow top and green trousers, named cheese and pickle.

[Tembo]

Originally Posted by Blackflies

I cut my dog's hair when they died as a coping mechanism and still have it 9 years later. I thought this was normal until a boyfriend took great humour in my dedicated 'shrine' to them. I now have their hair kept a little more discreetly in little trinket boxes above my wardrobe because I don't relish at the prospect of another man looking at me as if i've got a hoard of ex's buried in the back yard. I can't let go but i'm no Ed Gein.

I did the same with my last dog. I cut a bit of hair off, just before he was taken to the vets. I'm glad I kept it, its nice to have a little connection. I don't care how ridiculous that sounds.

I am fairly sentimental. I've kept a few birthday and christmas cards, and there are plenty of family photos. A few things which I would otherwise throw away i've kept because of the person who gave them to me is no longer alive.

For me, keeping things isn't just for sentimentality. If I didn't keep certain things, I would just forget they happened. My memory is incredibly terrible. Seeing objects are good to remind me of things that have happened.

[citizen_erased]

I keep all my gig tickets/wristbands.

I've also kept this little toy fish that our kitten Bella used to use love carrying around in her mouth. We've had many cats over the years and of course many of those have passed away/been put to sleep, but they'd all lived quite long happy lives so it really hit me quite hard when Bella died a few years ago as she was only 16 months old.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

[Ronnie_Pickering]

I have a conker in my car, it reminds me when I went to the woods.. yesterday.

[Jen.]

Originally Posted by citizen_erased

I've also kept this little toy fish that our kitten Bella used to use love carrying around in her mouth. We've had many cats over the years and of course many of those have passed away/been put to sleep, but they'd all lived quite long happy lives so it really hit me quite hard when Bella died a few years ago as she was only 16 months old.

Sorry to hear that

One of my cats died last year and was only four. It came out of nowhere (the vet suggested it was probably sudden heart failure) and I took it pretty bad. The place that did the cremation took a cast of his pawprints and made a sealed bag of a small clipping of his hair and whiskers, and I keep that next to his urn and a tin of all his favourite toys. As soon as he died I kept walking around the house trying to find bits of his fur and collected them all in a bag, because I was worried that if I didn't they would just be vacuumed away or disappear. I've always collected my cats' whiskers when I've found them around the house though, so I still have loads of his in a bag, plus another bag each for my other two (it's easy to tell whose they are because one has thin white ones and the other's are thicker with black on the base - which makes them easier to spot so I have far more of those). People probably think I'm weird for doing that, but that's just the tip of the iceberg

I don't really have many sentimental items other than those because I'm quite anti-"stuff" (hate clutter and random junk). Just one box of carefully-selected letters, cards, things from school, etc, and then a few objects that belonged to my dad's parents.

[limey123]

Originally Posted by affluenza

I have a conker in my car, it reminds me when I went to the woods.. yesterday.

lol

[Consolida]

I used to keep loads of things for sentimental reasons such as ex's Valentine's Day cards or personal letters. But some years ago I had a big clear out and all of that went in the bin. It seemed odd to hold on to stuff that people I liked at the time had given me but who had turned out to not be very nice and whom I had long ago ceased to have contact with.

My most cherished sentimental possessions these days are to do with my son. The newborn babygro that he first wore, a tiny hand knitted cardigan, his first shoes, his favourite cuddly toys and books, his early drawings, lots of baby teeth, and of course millions of photographs.

I've also kept the early messages that my husband and I exchanged when we first knew one another. Also the special cards that I've received from him, my son, plus cards from parents that are still here or long deceased.

I have one or two things from my early childhood, such as a big dog eared old teddy although I had to cull most of my cuddly toys a number of years ago as they were taking up too much room at my Mothers. I did take photos of some of them before they went in the bin or to the charity shop though.

@ Jen - I don't think it's strange at all to save fur, whiskers or toys that belonged to a dear departed pet. I still have some fur from a stray kitten that I took in when I was 14. I loved him dearly and when he became ill and had to be put to sleep at the age of 8 I was heartbroken. Having a piece of his fur brought me some comfort.

From the list above I sound like a bit of a hoarder but it's much less than I would have kept in the pass. I've become a bit more ruthless about throwing things away now as the house starts to get me down when it becomes too cluttered.

[Counterpoint]

I still have my Gordon the Gopher puppet. Can’t let it go! (those born in the 90s+ might have to google him :-)