The State of the Union

My fellow amateur archivists and family archeologists, the state of the union is cluttered. What we have here is a ton of family stuff. Ten years ago I identified what I thought to be the coolest of the generational goods for display in my home – Mom Mom’s antique sewing machine and Pop Pop’s carved pipe collection are prominent fixtures on my shelves today. They look great.

And then? Well, then there is everything else.  Pictured below is the remainder of the inventory.  The remains from the big clean of 2011. Every item I knew had some kind of value or maybe had potential value.

And this isn’t everything.

So here is what I mean by valuable - a window into the quick and sweeping first clean decision-making process categories and how I am going to try to keep this train moving forward:

• The Sentimental – Photos, notes, journals, things that only I would find interesting or might help tell the family story.

• The Money – Things that I don’t want someone else may pay money for.

• The Legal – Paperwork that lawyers need.  Boring but I hold on to it just in case?  How long do I need to do that for?

• The Combo Platter - A dynamic combo of one or all of these.

• The Mystery Item – What exactly is this item in my hands? Is it valuable?  Is it trash? Only time and research may tell.  Or maybe it won’t.

 So here’s all my shit, are you ready to meet my family? Are you ready to meet my garage?