I can admit: I am a bit of a hoarder. Although A&E won’t be knocking on my doors anytime soon (or hopefully ever), my shelves and drawers are cluttered and filled with mementos from my past. I know my pack-rat tendencies are because I’m sentimental; I can look at an object and remember a time or a feeling associated with it. But it can be overwhelming.

The majority of these objects though are in my parent’s house, which was fine with me. They no longer cluttered my life, but I still was able to hold onto them! But now, my parents are moving, which means I need to pack up my room and downsize by, my worst nightmare, throwing things out.

Although I rose to the occasion – see, I’m a low-key hoarder – it was quite difficult holding things up in front of my face and then giving them value to determine if they’re worthy. I tried Emily Gilmore/Marie Kondo’s method of decluttering by asking myself if each object gave me joy. When the answer was yes for the majority of my objects, I knew that wasn’t going to work.

It got overwhelming; I whined (and wined), got angry, and even cried a little. I tried avoiding it altogether, but at the end of the day, the contents of my room either needed to be in a box or garbage bag. But despite the frustration, it was overall fun just sifting through my collection. Because of everything of my hoarding, I was able to:

Take Trip Down Memory Lane

Like I said, everything I own has a memory associated with it. Jewelry box with that horse on it? Bought it at the souvenir shop during my Girl Scouts dude ranch trip. Rock on my shelf? Picked it up in Spain. I found things that I didn’t even remember I owned, but made me happy all over again. I have a great memory, which can be a blessing or a curse.

Review Nice Things People Had To Say About Me

I like to hold on to cards that say especially nice things about me. While going through my things, it felt good to reread notes from the past, from both people that are still present in my life, and those that are gone.

Learn About Who I Was At a Previous Time

I also found in my drawers notes about future plans or my musings at the time. One was a letter to myself, written at the beginning of senior year of high school and given back to me at the end. In it, I talked about my goals for that year of school and my thoughts on what I thought college was going to be like. It was interesting to see what was important to me then and compare it to now.

Remember People From My Past

In life, people may come and go, and some situations are permanent than others. It was great, though, going through photos and scrapbooks that featured my childhood friends, even if I’m no longer friends with them. It reminded me of fun, carefree times that I hadn't thought of in ages.

I lost my grandma a few years ago though and I’m grateful that I kept so many things from her. Although a couple of things that I have from her don’t look like much, and may have been just a drugstore purchase, I like to look at them and remember why she gave them to me in the first place.

Realize What Was Actually Junk

Everyone has a different view of what junk is, and although my view may be more liberal than some, I finally threw things out. I basically asked myself two questions: Will I ever have a place to put this? Do I need this object for this memory?

So I threw out the door hangers from the RAs that I collected over my college years – they wound up just being a pile of construction paper that would never have a place (although I did keep one from my senior year that featured all my housemates). I cut down on my stack of cards, only keeping ones from graduation and my boyfriend. With great difficulty, I threw out a lot tickets and programs of different events – I didn’t need a ticket stub for every college football game, but I held on to my boarding pass for my first European trip.

So my low-key hoarding isn’t all bad, and may be under control for now. I'm grateful though for all the memories that were prompted from this, making me feel a little sad for those who just throw out everything (although I'm jealous of their clear shelf space). It’s nice to be reminded of the past with all the trips, people, and memories in it; you just can’t live in it.