k-keepsakes

Keepsakes are such a personal thing, a reminder, a memory,something special in time ,place and person.

Too many and they become fears, anxiety that losing the article means losing the memory and it turns to hoarding.

I'm not a true hoarder , there is a clear path through my home, but I confess to boxes of ...stuff...memories. Some from my childhood and some from my childrens.

Not that long ago we were renovating and had to find somewhere(the dining room...sigh) for the boxes and accumulated.."stuff".I went through it,some of it was sellable, things we had bought to use for the house but changed our minds or bought something else when the original couldn't be found. Some of the stuff belonged to the kids and has been given back and other bits were ..well..rubbish... exit 6 boxes. I figure if I hadn't looked for or needed the paperwork in 10 years then I didn't need it....3 boxes ..gone!! So now we are down to Christmas decorations/tree/lights, a few paintings and frames left from the gallery and the odd few things still belonging to the kids...and my keepsakes.

I have kept a few things from each of the kids, things they made at school or at  home for the christmas tree. No Easter bonnets ,they were huge,elaborate things that fell apart and/or got eaten .
My keys still hang on a key hangery thing that Danny made in preschool and gave me for mothers day. My china cabinet is chockas full of keepsakes. The cigars given for our firsborn. The small gifts given for each of them as babies, ceramic booties and crochet slippers, a vest I knitted for one,another  a cardigan and another a  teddy bear. My wedding bouquet and my bridesmaid bouquet for my middle sisters wedding that I didn't attend as I was in hospital having lost a baby. A collection of $2 shop resin bears that the children would buy for me for Christmas with their $2  for each gift Christmas spending money.

Little 18th and 21st plastic silver keys, markers of the occasions, one a party event at" home" and the other as a newly wed at my inlaws with a simple cupcake.

The wedding champagne glasses I took my first sip from as a married woman,A hip to toe plaster cast from our toddlers broken leg. Netball trophy's from when I was a child, an embroidered apron from Les's great great aunt, his mothers wedding ring, his signed  wooden 21st key .
I have nothing of my mums in there, she had her own cabinet much the same as mine and the things are packed away ,safe, at his home. My Nonna used to collect bonbonaire from every wedding she went to , at my wedding she was the only one we gave one to! She must have had 100 of these little lacy pretty thankyous. When she passed I asked my uncle about them, but he had thrown them away, they were just dust collectors to him,to the 9 grandchildren they were part of the fabric of our childhood ,as Nonna would go to each one in the cabinet and show us whose wedding it belonged to with a photo of the bride and groom, every time we visited.
For a long time nothing had been added to the cabinet other than dust, the kids no longer draw special pictures,make cards or bring home merit certificates. But with Gemma's wedding came a few new keepsakes and I know I will have to make room for things from my grandchildren. So my next job is to get in there take it all out, sort it, dust it, probably have a little tear over some things and then put it all back leaving  room for the new memories.