Organizing a Memory Closet

If you follow my blog and Facebook then you know I am doing a whole house purge this year.

 This past weekend I tackled my keepsake / memory closet.

 

Below is a before shot.  This closet had accumulated a  number of things in the past 10 years. Luggage, keepsakes, random clothing etc. And although  my photos are already somewhat organized in scrapbooks (not shown). The extras and duplicates are in these labeled shoe sized boxes from the craft store, So I had a head start. 

What I needed to do was organize the last 10 years of photos and memorabilia that had just been thrown in this closet to (get to some day).  

That someday was now

 

And below we have the After. 

 The first thing I did was to designate this a Memory closet only. So the luggage went down the hall to another more appropriate closet.

  I hung my wedding dress, and a few other pieces of important clothing in this closet. That is the only clothing in here. 

 I realized that I could fit more of the shoe boxes on the second shelf than the top shelf due to the slope of the roof so I moved them.

 My kids memory boxes were reduced and divide by items that had to be stored inside, and items that could be moved to the attic. In other words, no photos in the attic.

Some good products to help you get organized.

Lidded storage boxes (on floor) are an inexpensive staple for me. I use them at work, at home, in the garage, and barn etc.  But remember to label them or you will not know what is inside.

One of  the favorite organizing tools that I found were these storage boxes from Michael's.

 I found them in the scrap-booking storage isle at 50% off. $15 for 4 boxes.

I like these for several reasons.

 They are clear,

 they will hold notebooks and newspapers where the shoe box sized boxes will not.

They have a build in handle,

 and they stack very nicely.

 

This one houses a scrapbook I made years ago and loose photos of our former home remodeling adventures.

These are a few other products I picked up that I really like.  

The zipper envelopes, In 2 sizes are perfect to separate items in a larger file storage box, and you can see what is inside, get to it easily and mark it with a sharpie. (hint Sharpie writing can be removed with Alcohol, so if you need to change the label it's easy)

The expandable folders are a bit less wonderful but are also less expensive and are perfect for certificates, documents, clippings etc.

The zip folders expand and will lay flat inside a shoe box and are nice for bulkier items, like disks and cassette tapes.  

I had a lot of fun going through these old keepsakes, and getting them organized.  I found an old audio tape my dad made of an interview and listened to the whole thing while I sorted. It was all very technical stuff, but is one of the only recordings I have of my Dad's voice.

  I will definitely store it indoors.

I hope this will encourage you to get into that Memory stash you've been accumulating and get it sorted out. You'll be glad you did and you'll find lots of fun stuff.