Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

Don’t Just Archive… live

In Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together, she tells the story of a man who is trying to archive his whole life on the internet for posterity.  He is quoted as saying that he finds it satisfying to “get rid of” memories by putting them on the computer. Hmmm… I often urge clients to enjoy the satisfaction of letting go: sending bags of clothes to

the thrift store, creating space in the file cabinets for the papers that were piled up on surfaces, but memories are different.

My goal is never to help clients ‘get rid’ of memories. I like to talk to clients about how they might enjoy (the limited) keepsakes they keep. Yes, I’ll ask if they really need both the ticket stub and the playbill from every show they’ve ever seen and I’ve challenged them on the utility of banker’s boxes of photos they have stashed in their storage space- but curating isn’t ‘getting rid of’ it is editing, preserving, presenting.

A client might decide to keep only the playbills, but put them in a binder that they can peruse to bring back memories, and where they can discover, as my mom did, that they did indeed see a very young John Travolta in the chorus of the Andrew’s sister’s musical in 1974. Perhaps that unwieldly banker’s box of photos can be edited and organized by decade to fit into 2 attractive photo boxes that the grown children can enjoy looking at when they are home for Thanksgiving.

If you are just ‘getting rid’ of memories, what is the point? We are all mortal. Only a very few of us will be studied or written about when we are gone, why create an archive that is only more clutter- it doesn’t matter if it is digital or paper- it is still clutter if it is indiscriminate. Ask yourself this: is your attention to archiving getting in the way of making new memories? Or having a peaceful serene home? The fun of an archive, whether it is photos or playbills or professional accomplishments should be to be able to enjoy and share it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sentimental, I have photo albums and my children love to sit on the couch and look at them, which is why I make them, so we can share them and remember together.

So, when you keep something for your archive, ask yourself why. Will you look at it? Will it be enjoyable to share with others in its’ current format? Will it be of interest to those in your field? Or, is it just hard for you to let go?

I don’t know what your answers will be, but I do know that ‘less is more’ definitely applies to keepsakes, and that the more you let go, the easier it gets.