As humans by our very nature, we save things. We save things that are of value to us whether it may be financial or sentimental. We take pictures and save concert tickets and napkins from our best friends wedding. Inevitably, when an older family member dies we inherit sentimental possessions such as a poem or love letter written long ago, a vintage perfume bottle or a flower pressed in a book, a century old birth certificate or program to a school play. These are the things that tell the story of our lives and the lives of our families. They are our heritage in hard copy. These are the items that make up our own family history museum.

My son likes to draw. He draws and colors pictures for me all the time. I have several posted in my office, on our refrigerator at home, on the mirror above my dresser and taped to my closet door. This is his way of expressing love for me. He feels proud when I ‘ooh and ah’ over them and tape them up for everyone to see. However, my son is eleven years old now. His age has attributed to a tremendous amount of drawings and pictures. Too many, in fact, to be displayed or even kept. When he was little I would rotate them occasionally and put the old ones in a box in my closet, replacing them with the new. Eventually I would choose a couple of the old ones to keep for his scrapbook and throw the rest out. I always had to be careful not to let him see them in the trash or he would harass me into keeping them indefinitely. Now that he is older I simply explain how much I love them, but I can not possibly keep all of them forever, so I have chosen a few of my favorites and the rest, unfortunately have to go. He reluctantly accepts this as a fact of life.

So, as life goes on and years pass, each of us come to the realization that we have accumulated some  stuff and a lot of it. My suggestion is, since it is impossible to keep everything, choose those items that are especially meaningful to us or of significant historical importance and let the rest go. I personally keep a few pictures or cards my kids have given me throughout the years and photographs of course, in addition to a few other items such as sporting event or movie stubs, a flower we picked while camping or a lucky penny or sea shell we found while on a family outing. But the real issue is what to do with these items? Putting them in a box, never to be seen again, kind of defeats the purpose of keeping them in the first place doesn't it?

One idea for the purpose of keeping cards and letters, ticket stubs, old report cards and photographs is to scrapbook. I have a scrapbook for each of my children that are filled with items such as these, specific to that individual child. I have a separate family scrapbook that is a kind of bibliography of our family history. It contains items such as copies of old marriage licenses, birth or death certificates of relatives that have passed and other significant items such as military discharge papers, wedding invitations, birth announcements. etc. I also include news paper clippings of any significance in addition to photographs. If a scrapbook is just to much work for you, dedicate a box for each of your children or a combined box for each year and collect the significant items there. Eventually, maybe someone will be crafty enough to tackle a way to make them more accessible somewhere down the road.

As for the other items that might be impossible to place in a scrapbook such as the vintage perfume bottles or an heirloom family bible, consider establishing your own family history museum. You do not need a huge space to accomplish this, you may choose to do it on a smaller scale. If you do not want to spread things out throughout your home, consider utilizing a spare bedroom or even a single wall or book shelf to assemble and display your varied collection.

For me, my family history museum is my home in general. Significant items are placed throughout my home that have sentimental or historical value to me. In my bedroom I have a corner shelf that houses an Indian lamp my mother-in-law made and hand painted in ceramics class, some old photographs and my paternal grandmother’s collection of perfume bottles. They sit on a vanity tray she received from her mother as a little girl. On this same shelf is a wooden jewelry box that belonged to my maternal grandmother when she was a girl and passed on to my mother who then passed it on to me. On top of the hope chest at the foot of my bed sit several antique porcelain dolls that were passed down to me from my grandmother and my husband’s mother.

In our den, one whole wall is covered with John Wayne Memorabilia, as my husband and I both have a fondness for The Duke. In my kitchen above the pass through window to the den, I have a tea set my father in law sent back from overseas when he was in the Navy during the Korean War. On a bookshelf I have two bookends carved from wood in the shape of a tribal chief my uncle sent back from Africa when he was in the Army and stationed there. In my dining room I have a shelf covered in small ceramic bunnies that my mother in law collected over her whole life from the time she was a small girl. In my living room I have a collection of angels that I have been collecting for a number of years.

These things tell a story for my children and coming grandchildren. They speak of times past and lives lived. They meant something to my loved ones now gone and so in turn they mean something to me. My children and I are reminded where we came from when we see these things throughout our home. They are wonderful conversation starters when we have guests and often bring to mind long forgotten memories of those we have lost. We often sit and look at our scrapbooks and laugh and cry over the memories we find there. These items are not just items, but they are the memories, the history of people and places we have cherished, valued and loved.