Halifax professional organizer offers tips and tricks for your personal memory lane

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You don't have the space to display all your memorabilia. Deciding what to let go of is difficult. As for what you have decided to keep, you're not sure where or how to store them.

Andrea Josey has a few tips and tricks up her sleeves.

For the past 11 years, she has been a professional home organizer and has a certificate in senior move management with a focus on downsizing, moving, organization, home office set up, along with household management. She operates H2O Happy 2 Organize out of Halifax.

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Josey explains that downsizing with memorabilia can be difficult as we sometimes feel we have to keep items out of obligation and/or guilt. But she recommends only keeping those items that are truly meaningful and hold a special place in your heart.

Josey provides her top tips for making downsizing easier.

First of all, having a so-called memory box to properly store items you don’t want to discard, but also don’t want to have on display is a good start. A memorabilia box can be a lidded plastic storage container or something more creative like a vintage trunk or suitcase.

Keeping all your well-deserved awards and accolades can be difficult, given the space that most have, says Josey. Not all items are still meaningful, so it is important to go through and decide which are the most valuable to you and let go of the rest. Put the most special ones on display and rotate periodically with other ones in your memory box.

Trophies and plaques can be bulky and difficult to store. Donate them after taking a picture and removing the engraved plate.

Shadow boxes are a great way to display these plates along with medals and ribbons.

Nostalgic clothing from trips, events or sporting games can accumulate over time. Let a picture hold the memory and store that in your box along with a note telling the story behind it for your future self or family member to enjoy reading.

How about wearing a couple of those old concert or travel t-shirts? How fun would that be? And what great conversations it would spark. Or, let your children enjoy them.

Josey says you can also donate wedding gowns, bridesmaid, prom and baptism dresses.

Paper can be one of the most difficult things to downsize, but here’s some idea on how to tackle those sorts of items.

• Discard blurry or unrecognizable photos.

• Pull out photos and remove unwanted frames to donate.

• Photo albums can be transferred to memory photo boxes to save space.

• Scanned photos stored on USB or hard drives can be stored in memory boxes as well.

There will be cards and letters you want to hold on to with special words of encouragement and love that inspire you, says Josey. Maybe you only want to keep the verse and/or personal note.

The front of the card can be repurposed into gift tags for you or someone else to give. Store the ones that mean the most in your memory box and take a picture of the rest.

These precious memories may not be looked at for months and perhaps years, so keeping them safe in your memory box leaves room for other items you view more frequently.

Clothing, toys, art, blankets and books can be difficult to let go of, says Josey.

• Limit the number of possessions by having only one or two storage containers per family member, including children. Keep one for paper and one for other items, then take pictures and donate the rest.

• Save a couple favourite pieces of your child's artwork each year in plastic sleeves and place in a binder to hold on to.

• Ask your kids what they would like to keep in their memorabilia box. It may surprise you what items hold special meaning to them.

• Little pieces of clothing, blankets etc. can be repurposed into memory quilts.

These can bring us back to a special time or place. Some will mean more than others and some may be items you no longer collect or bring you joy.

Try repurposing an old window into a coffee table with storage to display your most favorite treasures with pride. The rest can be stored together with your other memories.

Overall, be selective with your memorabilia, keeping only items that are truly special and review these items every couple of years, says Josey. Some you may want to display, but, for others, perhaps a picture will do.

Having a memory box that you can bring out when you want to reflect and reminisce is a wonderful way to honour those special people and moments in your life.

Keep in mind it's best not to store these valuable items in areas of high moisture as attics, basements, and garages. High closet shelves and storage racks will keep them safe and within reach, she suggests.

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