Heres my delima- Our house is a 1200 foot home with little to NONE closet space, no basment and very little attic room. We do have a 2 car garage but it is packed to the brim with my dh's tools, and his crap that he refuses to part with. i am tired of all the clutter we have around here and i want to get rid of it! I have been doing most of this decluttering while dh is at work and ds is at school. Because they are both PAC-RATS! I mean tell me why on earth does my son need a closet full of toys that he never plays with? I mean his closet will not close because it is so full!

We have my sons baby bed, stroller, his first bike, stuff like that that i want to get rid of. Maybe keep the first little red trike and wagon but the other stuff donate it or give it away to someone who needs it. My dh is just throwing a HUGe fit ( along with my mil- he told her of my "evil" plans) because they say that i should keep everything from ds's childhood. I know he is special ( we adopted him) but it's not like we are ever going ot have more kids and lets face it my house isn't going to grow another 900 feet or anything. So PLEASE give me some ideas, comments, on what others do with their childrens childhood things!

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You must do the thing you think you cannot do~
-Eleanor Roosevelt

We can keep wishing though, right? haha I have a small home with no closet space, too. We don't have a garage though, I'm jealous!!!

I also posted the same thing in the other thread - keep the things that were his favorites! I have my baby blankets, a baby pillow, 2 favorite stuffed animals, and a music box thing that someone gave me when I was little. My mom saved about 5 pieces of schoolwork and my gradecards for every year I was in school, and put it in a scrapbook for me. It's really neat, and she had a hard time getting rid of all of the other stuff, but I don't think more is necessary. She also has a scrapbook of all of my pictures ever, one for newspaper clippings I was in, and also for all of my awards. She didn't even do anything fancy with them - they are all in 3 ring binders with those plastic page protectors. It's just as neat to me! She picked out my favorite outfits from when I was little, and also kept all of the things either she or my grandma made for me.

It sounds like a lot of stuff, but it all fits into a rubbermaid storage container.
I do have many things, but if I had less I don't think I would be upset with her. I think your son will appreciate what you kept for him when he gets older, no matter how much or how little there is!

I guess i am so torn on this one issue because my mom kept NOTHING of my sister or I's childhood. Sometimes i think it would have been nice to have something from my childhood but it's to late now. LOL
I am bad i must admit about keeping Quentin's papers, art work from school. I lthink it's fun to see how much he has grown from the begining to the end of the school yr. I have one of those tubes ( think long, round tubes that you keep posters in) and i plan on keeping his papers in there. But the big stuff like his stroller, bed toys i mean really why do i need to keep it all? I don't have the room to store it all. One of these days my dh's garage celiling is going to fall down! He has so much stuff stored up there!! LOL

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You must do the thing you think you cannot do~
-Eleanor Roosevelt

My mom is the same way - her mother got rid of everything pretty much except for her gradecards and yearbooks. So she was afraid to get rid of anything that we might want to have later. For the bigger items - she kept our crib, but it was also her nephew's crib, who she sort of raised for the first 5 years of his life, so it means a lot to her. The same thing with the cradle. She is keeping it for sentimentality, and also for when grandkids come along, so she can set up a little nursery area at her house for them when they come to visit or stay so we don't have to bring anything.

She has 3 daughters, 2 of which live in the same town, so the idea of grandchildren at her house is very likely.

I don't have any of my bikes or anything like that, you could probably sell those to someone whose kid would really enjoy them! That's what she did with ours. We don't have many of our toys, either, just a few favorite small things that we would take everywhere with us. For example - my baby sister had this doll that she named "Maggin" (she couldn't say Meagan, lol) that is so nasty, old, has pretty much no hair, but she kept it because my sister carried that thing around for about 5 years. I didn't have a thing for dolls, I learned to read at 4 so books were my thing - and I have about 5 of my favorite books.

I really think that the big stuff isn't important. We don't have our stroller, baby swing, or any of that stuff, plus we wouldn't use it if we did have it. I don't mind using second hand things, but those things are 20 plus years old, and there is no sense in keeping something that no one is going to want later on. It's just stress on you keeping this stuff and working around it, moving it, etc.

Good luck, and remember, your son is not going to hold it against you when he gets older if you don't have everything from his childhood

We have saved so far a blanket that my mil made using clothes from her mother. She made a large one and a mini quilt. The large quilt we use to cuddle with in the living room. The smaller one I have in a tote.

As far as my boys' things, I am into scrapbooking and pictures. I don't plan on keeping anything large for sentimentality. I like the idea of taking a picture of the boys using it and then scrapbooking about it. Bob has his special blanky, not sure yet if I will keep it or not. I do have their first artwork framed. We had so much of my step daughters' things and have now given it all to them to decide what to do with it. (They are grown, now.) When things are broken or not used, they don't stay around here for long.

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

I agree with ChickyHip, take lots of pictures! You don't need things to preserve memories.

My MIL has so much saved from her children. She brought out the 1960's high chair, crib, playpin, toys, etc for my kids when they were born. I dropped my jaw in horror. There was NO WAY I was using those things. Whatever we have now won't be of much use for grandchildren. I donate or sell my things inexpensively to someone else who can use it now. Another child might enjoy the bike, etc.

I have a big box for each of my 2 daughters. I put in so far, crib bedding that I made, hospital blanket, coming home outfit, all cards from their first year...things like that. I did save all there little people toys and houses.

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HAHA! When we had Jamie we decided not to buy another crib, we would use the bassinet and then Bob would move to his bed. Of course, Jamie is not in the pack n play and Bob is still in his crib, but that's a whole other story. ANYWAY, my grandma offered the crib they have from my step dad. I had to say, "Really, we just don't have room, we'll have to go with our plan instead." It's nice that it lasted this long and chances are my child wouldn't have gotten his head stuck between the bars or anywhere else, but I felt better just NOT using it.

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

No matter how well something is perserved it still ages over time and gets older looking.

I have kept dd baby book and filled that full of most of her accomplishments and gave it to her when she got married. I also kept her barbies, because everybody keeps barbies

I kept two blankets and two christing gowns of the boys and had them preserved by the cleaners, but they still have turn yellow and very fragile.

You know things are just clutter after a while, and memories and pictures are what last forever.

Perfectly stated!