Meanwhile, I have not 1, not 2, but *6* Hanson books/programs. Wonder if people might want that stuff on eBay...No, NO! Just throw it away.

I'm definitely a tosser, but I wasn't at your age. Now I'll throw away photographs if they don't mean much to me. And diaries. I even threw away one of my high-school yearbooks.

At your age I held onto a lot of textbooks and things that I thought I might "need". I never did. You'll probably realize that. You already do. Like you said in your entry, if you wanted to know something you wouldn't reference high-school notes, you'd look it up on the internet. At this point I don't save any textbook or reference book, except a Tabers medical dictionary (you can even get this online) and a few other materials specific to my job. Everything else can be looked up on the internet.

I toss all of my children's schoolwork unless the writing is personal or especially sweet or funny. I save all of their artwork that is creative or worth saving, and of course all of the handprints and stuff like that. Colored dittos are not worth saving. At first I was saving every spelling test and worksheet. That's nuts. I would have to rent storage.

There are a few questions you're supposed to ask with objects. Does this object serve a purpose? Does it bring me joy or happiness? If not, toss. It's freeing.

I remember when I threw out all my old notes and papers from when I did my law degree. It was all completely useless but it still felt like a waste to discard it.

I'm fairly ruthless about throwing stuff away these days. I try to do it as I go along, but every few months I'll have a big clear out. I don't keep things like concert tickets. I mean, I know I was there, and a used concert ticket is meaningless to anyone else. And I never buy theatre programmes or souvenir brochures from any tourist place I might visit.

I have an old diary from my teenage years that has a couple of autographs in it, school reports and certificates, copies of my parents' birth and marriage certificates (which I need when I apply for a passport, as I was born outside the UK) and a bunch of old photographs. That's about it really for 'old' paperwork.

I'm a saver. I have diaries from age 11 up to now (though I really don't write much in it anymore. I tend to use a little day planner these days). I agree with LoriFla - I save any memorable pictures my kids do/did, and the handmade handprints etc., but school work is discarded. I save much too much, but periodically go through and toss old cards, letters, unnecessary items. I do have every letter my grandmother wrote to me; I have the letter of acceptance to a fashion illustration school that I wasn't able to attend for financial reasons; I still have old love letters; and let's not get in to all the photographs. I wish I still had my yearbooks - they were destroyed in a basement leak. It's true that I don't read my diaries, and I'm not sure I want anyone else to (too much information in too much detail), but I just can't bring myself to throw them out. Maybe someday.

I've recently been thinking that I need to throw out burn those whiny old journals and sketchbooks I kept periodically thru my 20s and 30s, and well, up to today. I could keel at any moment and god knows I don't want anyone to read them now. I have endless other memorabilia that needs to go too. Pictures, a few personal notes, those I could keep.

I have:

- six fileboxes full of all my stuff from college
- my bedroom at my Dad's house full of all my stuff from before college
- a huge collection of expired cards/licenses/documents.

It's tough. I can't just throw away books, and no one wants outdated atlases or almanacs, so yeah, they continue to sit...

It's sort of, in weird way, how I continue to squat in my parents' houses - like if I give things away or change anything, I won't actually be living there anymore, and that would mean...something. As it is right now, after the theft of my laptop in Latvia, when I lost years of photos, documents, and music, I'm really afraid to detach from possessions anymore, and that's frustrating - I like to run a tight ship normally, but the chain to my stuff doesn't just keep it in place, but it holds me back too.

So, if you can: toss/donate it.

I'm a ruthless tosser typically. So much so that more often than not when I do a purge I throw something away that I need within a month or so. And then I have to buy it again.

That said, my parents' house had a lot of my crap in it still, from high school and college. When I was about 30 my mom finally buckled down and told me I had to take it all with me. That was when I did what you are doing now, it looks like.

What I ended up keeping was only letters, yearbooks, pictures, journals, and the notes I passed back and forth with friends in middle school. They're hilarious. Oh, and my fancy dresses from dances. My grandma saved my mom's, and I just treasure them!

Autographed postcard from when I met Annie Lennox circa 1983, though? Tossed.

Maybe for you it's not quite time to let go of all of those papers. I threw away all academic stuff. I cringed when I read the papers and notes, so that was easy. But the personal stuff? Yeah, I'm with you. It's hard.

Bit by bit, I think as we get farther away from an era the things that are important reveal themselves.

Good luck...

I tossed all of my school stuff, but I do have a box of silly things that I hold on to. It's just a small box, and I go through it every year or so and throw away things that don't still make me happy. Most other things though? Expendable.

I'm a throw-things-away person and mr. g is a keep-things person so we negotiate those waters with some difficulty sometimes, but generally come to a decent compromise.

I've learnt to throw away (donate) books in the past few years, only keeping valuable ones, or those that I read again and again. Living in a tiny NYC apartment is good for that.

I look at stuff and if I have not worn it, used it, or, read it, in the last 9 months or if does not have sentimental value (like something I bought for my mom when I was 6) or long term reference value (tax records) then it gets tossed out.

mdonley, if you were my child I would have probably tossed your stuff by now. I am cold. I know. "after the theft of my laptop in Latvia, when I lost years of photos, documents, and music," That is devastating but it is also one of the things I love about computers. I can keep important things like family photos in two places to protect them from disaster.

When my dad sold his house we went through a bunch of stuff in the basement and for some reason there was a Radio Shack catalogue that featured a TRS 80 business computer with colour monitor, spreadsheet software, and two 5.25 floppy drives for just $9,995.00! What a bargain!

Surprised people throw away their old journals. The reason I started a journal was because I kept wishing I had old journals from my old self.

Had to fly home from campus after school ended, so anything that couldn't fit in my suitcase was trash.