8 pieces of garbage you should never throw away
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I dream of being a minimalist. But in reality, I am sentimentally attached to many items. While I don't advocate keeping everything that gives you flashbacks of the "good ol' days," I do believe that there is value in saving some items that would end up in the trash. If you can glue it in a journal or repurpose them in some way, you're golden.
Here are 8 items that are worth saving for your future self and future generations and what you can do with them instead of creating your own personal junkyard.
1. Tickets
That little piece of paper that clutters the bottom of your purse until you unload it into the garbage can actually say so much. It's kind of a big deal that you saw Harry Potter in the movie theaters (i.e. you were alive in the age of Harry Potter), and your zoo admission might be somewhat valuable in the future when everything goes paperless.
Glue tickets in your journal (no writing required!) or collect them in a shadow box that shows off how cool you are.
2. Old keys
This is something that you aren't alway allowed to save, but if you are fortunate enough to keep the keys from places you lived they make great Christmas ornaments or framed art.
Keys are sentimental because you carried them with you everywhere and they granted you access to a very special place. Let them stick around.
3. Sticky Notes
If you and your loved one are in the habit of leaving notes for each other, you probably leave them up for a while. But eventually you realize you can't see your mirror anymore because it's so covered in words of love, and you reluctantly reach for the recycling bin.
Instead, make a book of your notes or save the ones that make you giddy to read them (even the 1,008th time) in your journal.
4. Receipts
After you've balanced the checkbook, do you really need to keep that stack of receipts? Please, no. But some receipts can have special meaning. Consider saving the receipt from the first time you and your husband went grocery shopping as a married couple or from when you bought that Apple watch he secretly wanted for Christmas. A paper trail of significant purchases can make for some great reminders. It can also be interesting for future generations to see how much gas cost or a gallon of milk.
Keeping stacks of old daytimers is a waste of space, but keeping a few pages can be valuable. They show the comings and goings of your life at a certain time. When your grandkids ask what a typical day was like in 2015 it can be hard to answer 20 years from now (I mean, "What did you do this weekend?" can be hard enough).
Rip out a weeks worth for each year to include in a memory book or tape a To Do list in your diary (and send the rest along to the recycling facility).
6. Gift tags
Holding onto a load of cards that say "Merry Christmas! Love, Aunt Roberta" can take up more space than they're worth. You can get the same amount of memory from some gift tags glued into your journal.
7. Old clothes
It can be heart wrenching to put clothes you dearly loved into the Goodwill bin. Instead of sending the fabric of your memories away, repurpose them. For example, you can make a quilt, something that can be loved and used for generations of new memories, long past the time the style's worn out.
8. Newspapers
Before you throw out your newspapers, cut out a few things that are happening. It may be fascinating for your great-grandkids to read about "history" from the point-of-view of present day. Occasionally preserve clippings of reports of major events.
Please note, you may have to laminate them or protect them in some way as the acid in the paper used for newspapers can eat at it and cause them to yellow.
