A friend recently posted some thoughts from a minimalist who really seemed to think that you need to throw away as much of your “old stuff as possible.” I’m not necessarily a fan of throwing away as “everything,” but there are things to get rid of as one cannot preserve everything.
Some thoughts as someone who has at least twelve totes of stuff.
1–Anything you can do to reduce the bulk should be done. This includes those artsy scrapbooks with all the extra paper, “decorations,” and the like. Don’t create archival things that require significantly more space than the item already occupies.
2–Digitize and identify on the image what you know about it. Metadata is fine, but annotations added to the bottom/side of the image are very helpful. People screen shot so much stuff that metadata gets eliminated when that happens.
3–Spread images out to as many places as possible. Those fee-based sites that guarantee they will be around forever, won’t. Companies go out of business. Don’t rely on that one website an influencer shared online or some speaker mentioned at a conference. Spread things out.
4–Encourage others to have an interest in family history now.
5–Wills are great, but if your executor doesn’t feel like dealing with all your papers because they were an unorganized mess and they get trashed, what’s the judge going to really do about it? Don’t neglect organizing and curating and say “It’s in my will, my executor will deal with it.” If something is being donated somewhere, consider giving them money as well–if they can’t afford to deal with your stuff, it may still end up at the dump.
6–Use that old china for holiday gatherings, special events, and the like. Some pieces will get broken. That’s fine. Crate memories with that china instead of letting it gather dust only to eventually get taken to the dump. Keep a few pieces back and clearly identify whose they were. If your family has memories of actually using the china, that will increase the chance they keep those few pieces that you never used. Create memories with other items as well by using them. People are more inclined to keep what they have an emotional interest in.
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