I have collected a lot of things my baby used all these days(he is 19 months) and I wondering if there is a good way to store them. I have things like his diapers in each size(1 each), his first babyfood bottles, his first milk bottle, few toys he loved, first shoes , his binky , nasal aspirator, first tylenol bottle etc etc etc .. you get an idea.lol. I have never been a hoarder but these things I want to keep , it will be so nice to one day look at these and remember the days he was actually using them. Anybody else save such things? I am planning to do a scrapbook with other things that I have like pictures etc. I have bought some folders for saving all the crafts he does at daycare and at home. But not sure how I can save bulkier things in creative way.Any suggestions? Thanks!
I know it;s very silly saving everything my son uses. I feel I am becoming a hoarder which I was not. Maybe couple years down the line, I will throw most of these away but right now I am going to keep it in a box as many of you suggested. Taking pictures and making a digital scrapbook is a very good idea - thanks.
We really didn't save these items, but I would suggest maybe taking a picture of each item and then doing a "digital scrapbook" for him to see later on. You could have a picture and then a little description below that talks to him about when/how often he used each item and why you saved them. Toss the items themselves. Seeing how "tiny" his things were is a cute idea, but this will take over your house!
Wow. I thought I saved things!
You have to ask yourself....what are you really going to do with these items???
I kept a preemie diaper and the hat they each wore home. No bottles, binky's, tylenol bottles, etc. I enough stuff to take care of. If you have more children, will you do the same? How will that add up?
Do you plan to give it to him? I'm going to go out a limb and say he won't want it.
I scrapbook pictures, certificates, hair, etc. I put the 3D stuff in a cute box and try to keep it very minimal. I honestly do not buy gimicky items or decor just so I don't have to fight myself if I'm going to save it or not.
I also keep a separate 3 ring binder for health records. I put all the hand-outs that has developmental milestones from the dr. office and height and weight in plastic sleeves. I write extra notes next to the milestones. I wrote my daughter's words next to the part it says, "says 8 words or more."
I do keep dresses/outfits that we had the girls' pictures in. They can decide if they want to keep them for their future daughters or not. I will keep a few toys...and that is it.
I also come from a place where my mom died at a young age (56) and I had to go through her things. I realized that people keep different things for different reasons. I don't know why mom kept some stuff, but I couldnt' keep it just because it was important to her. Grandma died a year later and I had to go through her stuff. I had to let go and only keep things that were important to M.. Just something to think about. :)
I have a big, decorative box I got from TJ Maxx or HomeGoods that I store stuff like that in. One is pink and one is blue so I know which one is for which child. I do have to laugh when you said you kept the nasal aspirator. You know what's in that thing right? ;) For some reason, I kept both the outfits that my kids were wearing when they first walked. Crazy how being a M. makes you so sentimental. :)
As for the papers and crafts, you will see how quickly that stuff accumulates, so I have a scrapbook going for just the really good stuff that I date and put their ages on. Things that are milestones - first drawings, first letters, etc... You have to weed out some of it or it will overtake your home.
We take the kid's artwork and hang it on their bedroom door and closet doors for a few weeks/months. I save the cuter ones, and toss the rest. That way they get to show off their work and admire it on a regular basis.
Hope this helps!
I have a plastic storage tote in my garage with some of my babies stuff. I have a pretty box on a bookshelf that holds the extremely precious stuff, like dads hospital gown with the foot prints on it. The little birth certificate from the hospital, our hospital id bracelets and that kind of thing. It's right next to the baby books for each.
Some of that you can arrange in a shadow box. Self help frame shops can help you do that.
IMHO, you're going over the top on the saving of things. I only say that because I see a slippery slope here to real hoarding. I saved my daughter's going home outfit and her hospital hat in a shadow box and hung it in her room. I think it's really important for you to let go of this stuff! They're just material things, not your actual memories which will stay with you forever. :)
I can't relate *at all* to keeping Tylenol bottles, but I can relate to it being hard to throw away artwork. But, I also don't want to save hundreds of pieces of paper so what I do is take photos and then toss the artwork. Maybe you can do the same for your stuff? You can even make a photo book out of it, which would take up much less space than the items themselves. My personal plan for the artwork is to have it be the background for the pages of our photo books.
