This weekend I started a project I’ve had on my ‘to do’ since mid 2013. (I’m pretty sure it’s technically longer, but that was the last date I updated it in my Outlook Task List.) It’s a project that has been NAGGING at me, and yet it’s so big I just couldn’t contemplate doing it.

What’s been so daunting? Organizing my boxes of ‘memories’.

Over the year I collect the bits and bobs that represent the things I did, or memories in some fashion or another. At the end of the year I dump that pile into a plastic tub in the garage. I’ve been doing this for tears. Decades even. (So you can see why its a daunting task.)

Just before we moved here (almost five years ago) I managed to sort out all of my writing related ‘stuff’ — copies of my books, my articles, journals, poetry, etc. and get that ready to treat in an archival manner. I didn’t finish, but I did sort it out. The we moved and I ‘lost’ the four other archival clam shell boxes I’d bought to help me contain the paper.

Even before that I’d started culling my photographs. Negatives were placed into sleeves in a binder, photos into albums, with extras and uglies tossed out ruthlessly. The switch to digital helped corral this mess immensely, of course, and we have a moderately organized pile of pictures saved on our server (and backed up).

So I wasn’t completely in the weeds, just up to my waist.

Here’s a look at the piles after I’ve sorted out photos and journals:

almost all of the stuff

just the writing stuff

just the ‘live’ photos

a full tub of journals

and finally:

tub and more of memories

even more memories

I know one thing: If I finish a journal in 2015, I’ll have to start a new tub to keep it in.

The memory sorting is daunting. Prior to moving to the PNW (in 1996) I made memory books out of the flotsam and jetsam of my life. None of it labeled, of course. Now I look at pictures and try to remember the name of that person who was once so important to me. (It’s in my journal, I know, but that’s a lot of trouble, too.)

I *think* I might have an idea on how to sort the travel things. We’ll see. For now, I’ve been at this for several hours and I need to stop and get a different perspective. Time to cook corn muffins for dinner, and watch a movie while I work out.

Don’t worry, I’ll post an update when I’m finished.

(and: Hail Mercury! Thank You for giving me the nudge I needed to REvisit this REorganizing project.)