A few years ago I had done a major purging of my bookcase in the DR. It has one row of books and the rest is pics of my parents, family, etc and a few mementos. My friends that left really enjoyed seeing my parent's for example because they had known them. I find a lot of people looking at the bookcase and asking questions about the people. If it was cluttered it would be lost in the shuffle.
As people get older, I have seen them go a couple different ways. One way is they complain about all the dust catchers, the other (tends to happen more when no family around and a lot of friends have passed), is to be happy about the stuff and the memories it helps them with, while not being concerned about the dust.
A friend picked up a t shirt for his father, that made me think of this. It had a dinosaur on it and said "All my friends are dead".
This may be a function of being a primarily visual vs. kinesthetic or tactile person.
Also, that may be an issue in the "if you are just keeping the thing for the memory, take a picture and get rid of the thing." Concept - for me, in no way is the picture equivalent to the thing.
1. Why?Originally Posted by Chicken lady
2. I think that idea of taking a pic of the thing and throwing it away is a clandestine way of getting a person to realize that thing was not as important they thought. It is kind of a bait-and-switch. The person takes the pic and tosses the thing. Then they realize they don't miss the thing and they don't look at the pic. So they perhaps delete the pic too.
You might want to reread their post. By the reading of their post, I would say it is because they are TACTILE (touch) person.
Some people are visual, some auditory, and others memory is by touch. (why some people for example can't remember someones name when they see them, but can when they hear their voice, etc)
I don't take pics of things. But I know it works for some people. I had a 50 anniversary plate from my favorite grandparents and my grandma's wedding ring. I wear the ring all the time and realized I no longer needed the plate so gave it to the thrift store. I have only kept a few things that my Mom gave me. For years I kept it all and moved it all over the country every time we moved. I would have never left that stuff go in the past. I started 24 years ago when I moved across country and realized I had accumulated more stuff then what would fit in the biggest uhaul trailer you could rent. There were 5 of us then. Then 4 years later I left my hubby and moved across the country again with a much smaller uhaul. about 12 years ago I got really serious about too much stuff. When I married my current DH people gave us all sorts of stuff that we didn't need even though we didn't want them too. Most of that ended up in a few years at the thrift stores. I wanted to buy new sheets for my friends that were visiting and new towels so I gave a way a set of the old for each. I figure 2 sets of sheets per bed is fine.
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