T Minus 509 days: Purging Work Mementos

I had a couple of hours after dinner so I grabbed a tote that had mementos from places I have worked. Whenever I leave a job, I empty the draws and the take stuff off the walls, put it in a box, and the things I want to keep go into my Work Memntos tote.  I put everything into several categories:

• Throw Away - if I looked at it, didn't remember it, it apparently didn't mean much to me
• Scan it and throw away - Making a computer picture of something is a great way to remember something without actually having to keep the item. I will have a picture of it that I can look at whenever I want. The pictures are stored in the cloud, so, they don't take up any room and I can revisit it from anywhere I am.
• Scan it and keep it - some items have value to me and I still want to keep it. Scanning it provides a bit of security in case the original ever gets destroyed.
• Keep it - Most of this category was kid art that I had hanging in my office. 
• Put it somewhere else - pictures went to the picture box

Kid art was a different thing to make a decision about. I can imagine the moments when my child was making that item, thinking about how happy I would be to get it, and thinking about how proud I would be of them. And then a birthday comes or father's day comes and they go get it from where ever they were hiding it, and bring it to me. And their eyes light up as I look at it and admire it.

And now I'm looking at it again, ready to throw it in the trash? Not today. Maybe in a future purging I'll feel differently, but, today? Kid art went into the keep it pile.

I found a 15 year old work phone directory and spent a few moments flipping through it. I found all these names that triggered memories, without that directory those memories would never have come to me. It seems very odd to keep a 15 year old work directory... but I decided to keep it. I'm sure I'll throw it away in a future pass through this material.

Another odd thing a kept: a small booklet containing quotes from people throughout history. I flipped through the booklet an read many really good quotes and decided to keep the booklet.

I took at 18 gallon tote that was half full, and reduced it to just a two folders of items (about two inches deep total).