Hang On A Bit, Marie

[poliphilo]

On the subject of family photographs Marie Kondo says that you should weed out all the ones you think unlikely to interest your kids- and bin them.

And I say the kids can make their own selection. Why should I pre-empt them?

There's this to be considered too- that photographs grow in value as social documents the longer you keep them. My grandparents' Victorian, Edwardian and early Georgian albums fascinate me. I may not care too much about my parents' pictures of holidays they took in the 1990s but my great-grandchildren may well find them wonderfully quaint.

Comments

[sovay]

I may not care too much about my parents' pictures of holidays they took in the 1990s but my great-grandchildren may well find them wonderfully quaint.

Very strongly agreed. I love finding pieces of my family history like that.

[poliphilo]

I've spent many happy hours going through the family photo-stash. There are some real oddities in there- like pictures of the first British trade delegation to visit Moscow after the War- and snapshots of my father wandering round Egypt a few months before the Suez debacle.

[oakmouse]

Marie Kondo is wrong like a very wrong thing. If my mother had done as she advises, we'd have lost treasures.

Let the kids decide what they do and don't want, preferably before you die.

And yes, label the photos on the back!

[poliphilo]

I labelled my way through a big box of photos shortly after my father died, but there's a lot more to do.

[oakmouse]

My mother didn't label much of anything, and the pictures from before her time that were labeled mostly had nicknames on them, or names of British relatives that nobody in my generation knew. Or they were labeled in ink that has turned sepia, in tiny cramped writing none of us can decipher. But maybe 3 or 4% of the family photos are labeled at all in any way. When my sister L comes to visit later this year we're going to have a grand go-through of hers and mine and see what we can sort out.

[athenais]

As someone who likes to buy old photos when I'm traveling (they're my favorite souvenir) I can't understand why Marie Kondo would interfere with someone's personal history like that. Maybe they end up in shops so people like me with an interest in textiles and clothing can study them.

[poliphilo]

I bought a number of Victorian photograph albums when I was a student back in the 70s. I get them out and leaf through them occasionally.

[cmcmck]

We've got stuff going back to the mid 19th century so she's talking out of her backside as so many of these so called declutterers seem to.

[poliphilo]

I can see the attraction of the aesthetic she's pushing- but it's not for me.