Letting Go
Take Pictures before you Move
Many times in life we have to let things go. It doesn’t always get easier with time, let me tell you! As an Air Force Brat, I grew up moving our home every couple of years or so. That meant a lot of letting go…. learning to not get attached to a house, understanding that I probably wouldn’t ever see the people who became my friends after we moved, and saying goodbye to my grandparents in Chester County before we left for each assignment. It didn’t get easier.
There has been one thing that has made it easier for me … pictures! With every move I’ve made as an adult, I’ve found it’s much easier to throw/give things away and pack less to move if I take pictures of things first!
I wish I’d known that as a preteen. My parents still joke with me that they found a box of wrappers when moving from England back to the United States. I still think I have a good defense, “It was only one shoebox and the candies & crisps were so different than anything they had in the US!” (Crisps=potato chips. England was way ahead of US with Salt & Vinegar, Pizza, Crab, etc. US still doesn’t have Beef flavored ) The wrappers got tossed. Wish I had a picture!
When you prepare to move … take lots of pictures. Not just of the “house” but of people enjoying it! Get the kids sitting at the island for their after school snack, the neighbors gathered on your deck for a BBQ, the family lined up the stairway, etc.
To ease the pain of letting go of sentimental items, take pictures! When we cleaned out my grandmother’s house to move her to assisted living – it was hard not taking everything that I had a memory of childhood from. But taking pictures of those items made it so much easier.
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I completely agree!! And often times it’s weird little background details I want to see, not what I was really meaning to get in the picture.
Sarah – When I taught scrapbooking classes, I used to teach not to crop everything you think out. Later in life that ‘old’ car or bar stool will be just what you wanted to see, not the focal point
Don’t forget to back up all those wonderful pictures you take. I am having trouble recovering my older daughter’s baby pictures from a hard drive. I still think it can be done, but a back up would have been a lot easier!