Hot Take: Storing is the Same Thing as Trashing

My team and I work in a lot of garages. Garages are fun because they become a sort of dumping ground for all the unknowns in our lives.

A couple of years ago, we were helping a client declutter and organize their garage in preparation for a move. This garage had all the usual suspects: tools and hardware, car accessories, camping gear, sporting goods, holiday decor, all that good stuff. And it also had a large amount of sentimental items from both the clients and their parents, all still boxed up as they had been when first stored years or decades before.

The client ultimately decided not to get into those boxes, and to continue to move them as-is from one home to the next without looking at the contents. A very understandable decision given the limitations of their timeline and their busy lifestyle! But it reinforced for me one of my spicier takes on organizing sentimental items:

The lived experience of boxing something up and putting it in storage is the same thing as the lived experience of having thrown it away.

I know that sounds really challenging. You may be feeling vulnerable or distressed having read that. But do me a favor and hear me out!

The reason storing something is the same lived experience as trashing it is because you’re never going to see those items again either way. When we box things up for storage, we always have the best of intentions that we are going to revisit or repurpose those items, but the reality is that 99% of the time, we don’t do that, even when we have the opportunity.

In fact, the only time that most people open up boxes and look through the sentimental stuff is when they have to move that stuff from one place to another. And those are not the conditions under which you are going to spend time looking through things carefully and making intentional decisions about what you want to do with them. Just like my clients with the filled garage, you just want to move and be done with it, and leave tough decisions for another day! And all professional organizers will tell you that when we leave tough decisions for another day, what we are usually doing is postponing them indefinitely.

If you feel personally attacked by the concept that storing is virtually the same experience as trashing, I have a suggestion. Take the sentimental things that mean the very most to you, and find a way to bring them alive in your space every day. Display that photo album! Hang that piece of art! Create a vignette with important military insignia! Use those decorative trays and boxes!

Once you’ve selected they very most important pieces to feature in your home, you just may find that your need to hang on to the rest of it decreases. Because if everything is important, then nothing is important. But when a few things are important, we realize everything else is less important, and therefore not worth our time, energy, and space.

When you’re organizing and making decisions about sentimental items, remember: our memories only stay vivid when we can continue to revisit, relive, and appreciate them. They die when boxed up in the garage.

LMW