Organising memorabilia

nearlyrich wrote:

I am helping my mum declutter her house, she has been a hoarder all her life and I am trying to think of a way to trim down her boxes of stuff like cards, newspaper cuttings about our family, old documents relating to her life. I want to put it into some kind of easy access scrapbook so she can actually look at it rather than have a box stuffed under the bed or on top of a wardrobe. So does anyone have any ideas for supplies, all the "scrap booking" sites I have found seem a bit American and twee.

I don't have lot's of time to do this I work full time and I have a family and a house of my own so the simpler the better if anyone has any ideas please;)

How about these plastic pockets you can put into a ringbinder? I saw them for a £1 for 100 in Tesco the other day. You can stick photo's on an A4 size of card, write names and events beside it and slip it into the plastic pocket. This way you can add to the ringbinder as you finish one page. The pockets could hold documents or small items too.

Hi what a lovely idea. I am a huge hoarder and have accumulated LOADS of stuff, particularly Level 42 stuff. Like you I agree that it sems a shame to hide it away in various boxes. My DH came up with the idea of making a collage of L42 stuff. We got a HUGE clip frame(Tesco have them for £7 something at the mo) and are currently sorting it out. It looks fantastic, you can have it as a work in progress and can change it or add to it at the drop of a hat. Less than 10m mins work. The "glass" is plastic(if you see what I mean which I think given the size is a much better(and safer option). Its dead easy to move things round and loads of fun. She cou;d feature her memories and it would be SUCH a great talking point. Its the bigger Tescos that have them in stock. Hope this has been of some use. Good luck and have fun.

anniestar wrote:

We got a HUGE clip frame(Tesco have them for £7 something at the mo) and are currently sorting it out. It looks fantastic, you can have it as a work in progress and can change it or add to it at the drop of a hat. Less than 10m mins work. The "glass" is plastic(if you see what I mean which I think given the size is a much better(and safer option). Its dead easy to move things round and loads of fun. She cou;d feature her memories and it would be SUCH a great talking point. Its the bigger Tescos that have them in stock. Hope this has been of some use. Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for that:j . I'm doing a memories book for my son's 21st as a surprise but acollage will be great to put together so all family and friends can look at it on the day! We have a new Tesco Home shop opened up not far from me so I'll pop in there and hopefully they will have them. I was going to order a photo collage online but they started at £20 so I left it!

What I've done over the past few years is this - I have week-to-a-view diary which I use every day for the whole familiy's appointments, menu plans, etc. , and in it I staple or paperclip theatre tickets, postcards, press cuttings etc, putting them in the day the event happened. At the end of the year I have one diary with everything in it - I then put it with my back catalogue of diaries on the bookshelf. It's nice to look back at the memories but it's also very handy, eg if I run out of meal ideas I can look back and see if there are any old favourites to resurrect, also useful for checking dates of things if required. It doesn't take up a lot of room ( yet ) - maybe I'll have to think about pruning in 20 years' time

One thing I don't see mentioned are those photo albums which have a transparent sheet so you can see through it. You don't need to stick things down so they can be removed ofr changing or giving someone an article to copy.