I came across a bin of old photos. A big bin.

Decades of pictures, some dating back to before I was born up through about five years ago. The variety is impressive. Scalloped edged white framed and dated photographs from my earliest years mixed with school pictures, team pictures, and candid prints from Walgreen’s galore.

You might wonder how such an eclectic collection came to be…I’m pretty sure that as I cleared drawers, folders, and frames, I just tossed found items into the bin. When it got too heavy to easily move, about 2/3 full, I’d start another one. And then another. I came across this one, but I have many.

“Keeper” boxes, as I call them, also contain programs, report cards, TV Guides, letters & cards, newspapers, concert, theater, & sports tickets, etc, that have been saved over many decades.

Yes, these things are important to me. I kept it all.

I’m finding this excavation to be a bigger time suck than Facebook.
And that’s saying A LOT.

I’ve shared pics online and privately through messaging and text. I’ve reconnected with friends and family and reached out to friends of my mother’s. I’ve posted to the DeKalb FB page and the one of the Rockford pages. It’s been fun reading through the comments, seeing how these glimpses of times passed affect others.

Inspiring memories and reminiscing. Blasts from the past.

As I go through the stacks of pictures, I am dividing them into piles.
Nicole, Zach, family, Mary, Pets, Travel/Vacations…
There are a lot of piles and they stack up fast. At first I was putting them in gallon sized Ziploc’s…

but then I bought a bunch of photo boxes from Michael’s. Totally worth the investment.

Don’t tell my kids, but they’ll be getting all their boxes for Christmas. (It’s cool, not like either of them read their mom’s blog, lol.)

Requisite puppy picture.

Past puppies…and present puppies. Taken fresh this morning!

I am grateful for digital files, lol. They are much lighter and take up a lot less room.
BUT there’s nothing like holding a print in your hand.

What do YOU save?