You Can Throw Photos Away?

Yes, more obscure finds in the garage.

I gave Goodwill a slide projector that had a delivery date of 1968 on the box. Mm hmm. And guess what? I still have Kodak slide projector that I am holding onto because I am left with many slide carousels of photos--I don't know if I plan to have a quick slide show marathon to see what's on them, but I have the green guilt about just pitching slides. And what if there're some super cute photos of my relatives? But wait, they already left me tons of paper photos...


You can see how quickly I sound cluttery like them.


My grandparents did some international traveling together, so I assume I'd see slides of them running around Spain and whatnot. However, my grandmother was a bit famous for traveling without my grandfather sometimes. She'd find some friends or a group and go wherever--China, Japan, Russia, you name it, she went there. As evidenced by the gobs of travel brochures, tickets, maps, and knickknacks she accumulated. I love that Grandma was a world traveler and just couldn't get enough. What a free spirit! But I can also see that Grandma used things to hold onto her memories--many things! And she left many photos and slides. I've gone through two or three large boxes of souvenirs and pitched most of the paper stuff. Thank heavens my city has an awesome recycling program! But her photos and slides are just sitting in boxes, taking up space. And I don't plan to move them for the rest of my life, so...

I was raised never seeing anyone throw out photos or slides. There usually isn't a need to do so--but seriously, who needs hundreds of travel photos when they aren't your own? I hadn't considered throwing out photos until I had a professional organizer over a couple times. She confidently told me I don't have to keep pictures. Really?! Awesome, I thought. But it still feels...wrong. Almost disloyal or sacrilegious. But she's right. I have to pitch stuff. These aren't my memories, whatever false guilt tells me. I can keep "enough" ancestors' photos and still have plenty for the trash. While I've recycled the souvenirs, I am still psyching myself up for a serious trash attack on the photos. It's gonna be vicious, people. (Note: My city cannot recycle photos due to the chemicals used. Photos must go in the trash. The other option is to donate them to a community art school.)


I'm not just being mean to Grandma in this discussion. This purge makes me consider my own mementos--I have traveled to several countries and have a good amount of photos and paper stuff, mostly from my late-teens and early-twenties. If I don't streamline what's really important, who's going to want to go through my European museum brochures and souvenir postcards? I've done some sorting in the past, but I don't want to be a hypocrite. The difference is, I get the impression my grandparents never sorted, whereas I've done some here and there. Perhaps it's because I didn't grow up during the Great Depression and I also went through a phase of watching Clean Sweep and Hoarders. Thank you TV and the age of prosperity. You keep me in line. 


Final obscure find:
I went to the Salvation Army and gave away some kind of fishing net with an anchor. When I told the man collecting donations to be careful because it was heavy, he said, "Oh, it's a seine." I had to ask him to repeat it and and sure enough, I got home and looked it up and yes, he was right. I've had a seine in my garage and didn't know it all these years. Here's Merriam-Webster's definition:

Definition of SEINE

: a large net with sinkers on one edge and floats on the other that hangs vertically in the water and is used to enclose and catch fish when its ends are pulled together or are drawn ashore 

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seine?show=0&t=1339336692