GOLDEN MEMORY BOXES

THE golden rule when it comes to being tidy is this: if you don’t have the space and you don’t use it, or you haven’t used it in a long time, then get rid of it.

But I have one big exception to that rule — if something has sentimental value, I don’t get rid of it.

Instead, I’ve made memory boxes for me, all the boys and Joe. I’ve covered them in wrapping paper and labelled them with our names.

And that’s where those treasures get tidied away to.

WHAT TO PUT IN A MEMORY BOX

IT’S all about what reminds you of happy times, or adventures you’ve been on.

For me, it’s about drawings that the boys have done (only the decent ones), their hospital stuff from when they were born, tickets to movies they’ve been to.

Or, if we go to the beach or woods, they’ll pick up sticks and stones — and obviously I can’t just have a load of sticks and stones around the house! They just go in their memory boxes, too.

I don’t keep all of their birthday cards — so I’m doing a bit of sorting as I go along — but for special birthdays like Rex’s first and Zach’s 13th, I will keep those.

BIRTHDAY CARD BOOK

On Rex’s first birthday, I really wanted to keep all his cards afterwards, so I came up with this special birthday book:

1. STACK your cards inside one another, starting from big on the outside to the smallest in the middle, then hole punch through all of them.

2. TIE THEM together with a bit of string, and you’ve made a little birthday card book. I keep Rex’s in his memory box so when he’s older — or whenever I want to, more like! — we can look through them together.