Memory Lane & the One Box Rule

There must be some switch that flips when you have kids that makes you become a hoarder. Not a  “I save cereal box liners and have stacks of newspapers lining my halls floor to ceiling” type hoarder, but the kind that saves all sorts of scraps and trinkets from your offspring’s life. Some of it is fondly remembered. Some of it garners a laugh. Some of it just plain old raises the eyebrows.

See, when my folks were here a few weeks ago they brought the last (hopefully it’s the last) of my ‘baby box’ along with them. Since I already had another box of my stuff and one of Kevin’s hiding behind a chair in our room I figured I should probably get them out and go through them. Yesterday that’s what I did then transferred everything into our designated boxes in the storage room.

Yep we each have a box in our storage room (fondly referred to as “My Crap” and “Your Crap” ) Three glorious cubic feet of space apiece designated for things that don’t have an active use in our daily lives, but that we just aren’t ready to part with. My guess is there is a good chunk of you that have a similar box, or boxes, hiding somewhere in your home. If you don’t you should probably call your Mother because chances are it’s hanging out at your parent’s place.

Surprisingly, or maybe not,  our boxes have fairly similar contents. Samplings of schoolwork, report cards, High School diplomas (both still have our mortar boards too), newspaper clippings, awkward camp photos, long outgrown t-shirts from family vacations, craft projects, etc. Mine has a whole shoebox crammed with flat ribbons from my 4H days (one of these days I’ll scour Pintrest for a way to repurpose those…that’s what I tell myself anyways). Kevin’s has pins a plaques from Science Olympiad. Mine has the sashes and badges from girl scout years. His old baseball hats from Little League. Mine has a doll set; his, baseball cards. Obviously our mothers had similar ideas on what was important to keep.

I will fess up to the quart sized baggie of hair (mine) though. That was all me. After some long-past haircutting I guess I didn’t want to let go of my locks and mom was sweet enough to keep them (For the record they have been officially ‘let go’.) Surprisingly, the baby teeth from those pre-braces teeth-pulling years I kept. Yeah, a little gross, but they are nicely packed in plastic cases and they will be more than worth the eye-rolls they’ll get from the kids down the line.

It’s kind of fun to drag this stuff out and walk down memory lane from time to time. My only rule is that everything has to fit in the one box. If you can’t fit it in it’s probably time to take a detailed look at it and decide what’s worth keeping. Sometimes you find things that can be passed on. I found my old Fisher Price Dr. Kit (that toy really hasn’t changed much in the last 25 years) and pulled it out for the kids to use. My china tea set will have to wait a few more years though. If Jack, or Emilie, ever develops an interest in Baseball cards I know where a whole set is waiting.

Someday soon I will probably find myself hoarding things for my kids. Okay, who am I kidding, if I look over my left shoulder there is already two file-sized boxes marked ‘Jack’ & ‘Emilie’ sitting on the shelf, filled with all their baby memorabilia (not to mention their baby scrapbooks). It’s only going to get worse when they start school I’m sure. Before you know it they also will have 3 cubic feet of space in the storage room in which I can hoard childhood memories for them. I am determined however to stick to my one box rule…..for now.