Letting Go of Jewelry

I thought my next post would be about letting go of clothes, but am finding that task more challenging, so I am starting with jewelry.

I'm not a big jewelry lover so I'll admit that I may be starting with a small volume of jewelry compared to you. I wear jewelry when I go out socially; not every day. A couple of years ago, I decluttered my '80's and '90's costume jewelry I had loved but had then stored in a box for years. What was the point of them being in storage? As I mentioned in a previous post, I am trying to let go of my nostalgic self. Keeping a box of unused items is not giving positive energy to my present.

I have accumulated jewelry every year for decades as I would receive gifts or buy myself something that would catch my eye. I don't remember ever decluttering a good piece of jewelry. Jewelry is quite personal, so it wasn't something that ever made it into my decluttering efforts. The other reason is that a piece of jewelry is small. Compared to a household item, decluttering a piece of jewelry won't really be noticed.

That is until, the collection continues to grow. As my collection increased and overflowed, I bought new boxes to store them. This happened a little bit at a time over a long period of time, so it's not noticeable, until the top of my dresser became full of jewelry boxes and containers. What started as one large drawered jewelry box from my younger days (high school? university?) turned into multiple jewelry boxes, which overflowed into heart shaped empty chocolate boxes and pouches.

You could say that my jewelry is disorganized - and it has become that way over time. Lately, I would want to wear a specific necklace and not know where it was. I also forgot about certain items I had. The pandemic didn't help, but I have not been wearing much jewelry in the last few years.

The problem related to many parts of my life is that once I own something, especially if it is a gift given to me, I feel the need to keep it forever. In psychology, they refer to this as the endowment effect which finds that people are more likely to keep something they own than buy that same thing when they don't own it.

I am in the process of changing that mindset. Someone doesn't give me a present expecting me to keep it forever, so why do I feel like that?

I am ready to let go of jewelry even pieces that I like or love. I am letting go of jewelry that have memories attached to them. How and why am I doing that?

When the collection gets too big, we can't truly appreciate the best ones, especially when they are buried by the excess. I could get myself a bigger and better organizer but I don't need to keep jewelry that I only wear a few times a year. I often gravitate to my favourites so why not just keep those? 

The more I have, the more there is to maintain and organize. I love the boxes I have and am not interested in an elaborate or space taking unit. I let go of the box I didn't love and was taking the most space. I am keeping the 3 jewelry boxes I love.

I realized after I took the first photo that the heart shaped chocolate box was a memory box that has a childhood shell necklace I loved, my childhood charm bracelet and shells I loved from a childhood trip. They are some of my favourite childhood mementos not actual jewelry.

I started the letting go process with empty jewelry boxes - laying everything out on the table. Recognizing the containers I want to keep, I started by putting my favourites in that space. I like having the smaller boxes inside to better separate the items. I grouped similar things together. 

I kept going until the space was full and I am donating the rest.

Giving it more thought since taking the second photo, the boxes are still overfilled but I need more time to let go of more. I am accustomed to filling a space, fill the closet, fill the drawer, fill the shelf - but that's not the best organization practice. We should leave space to easily find things. We want to make it easy to return things to their place. So I will move some items to an extra box just as a transitionary box to see if I will miss them. I'll review it in a couple of months.

This is a tactic I have been using to help me to let go. I store things to see if they are really missed. Decluttering is a process so I am giving myself a pat on the back for getting it down to this amount.

I feel like I know where each item goes now so it will be easy to put back. It will also be easier to choose what to wear since I can better see what my options.

When I was choosing the jewelry to let go of, I asked myself if I had another item I loved just as much that I could wear if I didn't have it. I let go of things I loved that I found a little finicky to put on, so I often chose not to wear them. I also let go of some I loved with certain outfits that I no longer have. Although I still loved them, they didn't really go with my current wardrobe.

I am hoping that the items I am donating are finding their way to someone who will better appreciate them.

Where Are Your Photos?

Photos can play an important role in helping us remember special and everyday moments.

When I used to teach photo album-making classes as a Creative Memories Consultant, one of my first questions was "where are your photos?". The answers I received before digital photos were a lot simpler than they are today.

I would love to know where your photos are. If you want to share, please copy and paste the following questions and send me your answers at suzanne@revive55project.com.

In case you're interested, I'll include my answers at the bottom of this post in case you want to see them before or after you answer yourself.

1. Where are your physical photos?
a) In photo albums
b) Organized in boxes, folders
c) Disorganized in boxes, folders
d) Other: ___________________

2. Are you happy with the state of your physical photos?
a) Yes
b) No
c) No but it’s not a priority so I’m okay with it.

3. Where are your original digital photos (not back up photos)?
a) In an organization program like Photoshop Organizer, Lightroom, Apple Photos, Picasa, etc.
b) In dated folders on my computer
c) On my phone
d) On an external hard drive, USB/flash drives, SD cards
e) In the cloud
f) Other: ______________________

4. Are you happy with the state of your digital photos?
a) Yes
b) No
c) No but it’s not a priority so I’m okay with it.

5. Do you delete or throw away photos?
a) Yes - blurry and unflattering ones
b) Yes - all except the very best
c) Yes - somewhere in between
d) No

6. Can you tell the difference between your best photos and the clutter?
a) Yes - I only keep the best
b) Yes - I rank, heart or star the best ones
c) Yes - I have the best ones in separate folders or albums
d) No - the best are mixed in with the rest

7. How many photos do you have?
a) On your phone: _________
b) On your computer: __________
c) On external drives (originals not backed up): ___________
d) In cloud (originals not backed up): __________
e) I don’t know
f) How can I tell?
g) The number doesn’t matter to me

8. Do you feel like you can easily find a photo from a specific event when you want to?
a) Yes in seconds/minutes (in an album or computer)
b) Yes in under an hour (in an album or computer)
c) Sometimes
d) I wouldn’t know where to start to look
e) Other: ___________________

9. Could you recover your photo collection in case of:
a) House damage (fire, water, damage, etc.)
       i) Yes photos are on the cloud/online
       ii) Yes negatives, hard drive, files are stored elsewhere
       iii) No
b) Computer crashes and is not fixable
       i) Yes photos are copied on cloud, web, hard drive, USB or SD cards
       ii) Yes photos are also on phone
       iii) Yes lower quality copies are on Facebook
       iv) No
c) Phone or tablet is lost or broken
       i) Yes photos are backed up elsewhere
       ii) No

10. What do you love most about your photo organization?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________


11. What do you hope to improve about your photo organization?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

12. Who is in charge of your photos?
a) You
b) You and your partner share the same collection
c) You and your partner have separate collections

Although my digital photos are sort of organized, I feel that my system needs improving and be more time efficient. I feel that there is a better way to organize, curate and maintain our photos in the digital age.

Ten years ago, I posted this on social media:

I love my enthusiasm and hope that I would declutter our photos. For the past ten years, I have been feeling the weight as more and more photos were added to our collection.

Don't get me wrong. I looooove our photos and videos. I am very happy I have them.

For years, I kept thinking that my focus should be on decluttering. I spent hours deleting thousands of photos but then thousands more were added and the original number of photos I tried to decrease is surpassed again. I would get discouraged and at times give up trying.

As I see that message from 10 years ago, I recognize that I don't want to feel this way for the next 10 years. I also recognize that I should focus my time on the photos I love (a joy) not on the photos I don't want (a chore).

I think that the way of the past isn't the way of the future.

At the moment, I feel like I need to let go of my past collection. I don't want to spend the time required to delete unnecessary photos. I have used PhotoSweeper to find duplicates but even that application is time consuming to ensure I keep the edited version or the better version of the original or HDR one.

I want to let go of past mistakes and create a new way of capturing memories with photos. That's what I will focus my time on.

I would love to get feedback on where your photos are to see if most people are happy with the way things are or are looking for a better way like I am.

Thank you for reading and your feedback.

Suzanne

Here are my answers:

1. My physical photos are in photo albums and mostly organized in photo boxes.
2. I'm fairly happy with the state of my physical photos. I have a couple of years worth of printed photos that still need to be added to photo albums.
3. My digital photos are in multiple organization programs, in dated folders on my computer, on my phone, on an external hard drive, USB drives and in the cloud. Sounds overwhelming!
4. I'm not completely happy with the state of my digital photos.
5. I have deleted thousands of photos but keep most.
6. I try to rank or heart my best photos but there are lots that are not.
7. On my phone I have 46455 photos/videos (same as iCloud and Apple photos that are linked).
   In Photoshop 69929 (pre-May 2014) and in Lightroom 61908.
8. I can easily find a photo if I have an idea of the date or it's organized in a themed folder eg. a place, a person or activity.
9. My negatives and photo albums are in my house (I have had negatives elsewhere at times but they're back here). I have scanned a lot of my childhood physical photos but there are still tons that I would lose. My computer and back up drive are in our house so if something happened to them physically, I would only have icloud, Flickr and Lightroom app photos. 
10. I love that my photos are organized by theme (places, people, activities, etc.); that a lot of photos are ranked or marked with a heart; and that they are backed up.
11. I hope to better protect in case of disaster; I hope to find a less time consuming way to organize and curate my collection and I hope to be prepared for change in technology. For example, what happens to my Photoshop collection organization (with rankings, albums, tags, etc.) when the application is no longer compatible with newer computers. I think it's no longer available for purchase and possibly no longer supported. 
12. My husband and I share a collection and I have a separate collection.

It's not just a project, it's a process

My Revive55 Project began as a project to declutter and organize my mementos and photos.

I imagined spending the next year looking through my past to preserve the memories that were meaningful to me. I hoped to inspire and help others to do the same.

For the past month, along with looking at my past memories, I have researched, read and listened to podcasts to learn more about memories. I have reflected about my project and what would have the most meaningful impact on my happiness.

As I near the end of the first month of my project, I have recognized that it's not just about the past. It's about the present and the future.

Can looking at past memories make us recognize what is more meaningful in our lives? Can we create and re-create these types of memories?

As I work on the past, more memories are being made and getting cluttered in every day living.

Will I end my project with another year of memories to declutter and organize?

Would I end the project without plans to maintain the current memories?

When I was a Creative Memories Consultant and taught photo album-making classes, I used to tell my clients to bring their most recent roll of film to the initial class. They would make a photo album page using the most recent photos.

The lesson I taught then was to keep up-to-date with the photos as they were being taken and developed. When there was extra time, they would go back and scrapbook past photos.

I initially set a first 5 week period to take inventory and explore what I wanted my Revive55 Project to look like for the rest of the year.

An aha moment for me was to recognize that step one has to be to have a process in place for future memories.

As part of my Happiness Project Experience that I signed up for in January, I had chosen "Process" as my one-word theme of the year. My goal for the year was to put processes in place to be more productive and happier.

My Happiness Project and my Revive55 Project are coming together.

Revive55: Day One

My 55 week Memories Project is officially starting today.

What I envision at the end of the project is for the mementos that I care about to be on display or easily accessible. I will also journal the memories that I have and don't want to forget.

My Memories Project will have eleven 5-week projects. The first step is to take an inventory of my keepsakes and organize them so that everything with a similar theme is together.

Most of my paper mementos are in boxes and folders.

While going through the boxes and folders, it's important to see what items are memorable and worth keeping. By decluttering first, there will be less to deal with during the project and it will be easier to recognize what is most important.

Once I have a clearer idea of what is important and worth keeping, I will divide them into 10 categories to be tackled in ten 5-week projects.

I grew up keeping a LOT of papers and mementos related to multiple themes like travel, school, childhood, sports, family, friends, events, correspondence, gifts, etc.

I need to look at what I have and organize what goes together. In my childhood box, for example, there are travel mementos, correspondence, sports, events, newspaper clippings and school.

Upon initial reflection, some categories seem easy to choose. For example childhood, travel, concerts, sports, photos and videos seem obvious choices for me but we'll see if these are the categories I choose.

Do I want to organize chronologically or by theme? For example, do childhood trip mementos go with childhood mementos or travel mementos? Do sports and music trophies go together with ribbons and certificates? Or do I separate them by theme; putting sports trophies with sports mementos and music trophies with music keepsakes?

Do I want to organize by type of memento? For example do concert t-shirts go with clothing or concert mementos? Do postcards all go together or do trip postcards go with trips and art galleries postcards with art?

Do I want to organize by type of project? For example do I have a category for things to frame and choose framing as a project category or do I leave those mementos in their category like travel, sports or photos?

Which items bring back the happiest memories? Which ones do I want to see every day? Which ones are beautiful that I would want displayed in a main area of our house and which ones are more personal?

These are the types of questions I will be asking as I go through my boxes and folders and begin my Revive55 Memories Project.