Stairs

Image by Peter H from Pixabay

This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

Many of us still have our old high school yearbooks, even years or decades, after graduation. And you may wonder if it’s OK to keep them. Is holding onto your yearbooks just clinging to the past?

While I can’t tell you what to do with your yearbooks, here are eight questions to ask:

Question #1: How often do you look at your yearbooks?

Have you cracked them open in the last six months? Or six years? Do you frequently flip through them, or do they simply take up space in a random box?

Will you open them in the future? Do they contain mostly good memories?

Question #2: Would you be sad if your yearbooks disappeared?

If you had to move in the coming year and your yearbooks were somehow lost in the process, would you be upset? Or would you even notice they’re missing?

Question #3: Will your yearbooks help you remember names and faces?

When you’re young and spry, it’s hard to imagine how your memory will fade as you get older. But this happens to all of us. It might be nice to keep your yearbooks as a reference.

There’s no shame in keeping them in a “memories” box.

Question #4: Will your kids enjoy looking through your yearbooks?

It might be fun for your kids to see pictures of you as a teenager. They might admire—or abhor!—hairstyles, clothes, etc.

Question #5: Do you want to keep your yearbooks but don’t have a lot of space for them?

Some companies scan yearbooks and email you digital copies. This isn’t cheap, but it’s a good option for some people.

Question #6: Are you ok with them being gone forever?

If you’re unsure about whether to keep your yearbooks, you should hang onto them. You can always discard them later. But once they’re gone, there’s no easy way to get them back.

Question #7: Do you secretly want to get rid of them?

Some people have no emotional attachment to their yearbooks but feel like they need permission to get rid of them. If this is the case, you have my full permission to discard your yearbooks.

Don’t hang on to things that have no value.

Question #8: Do you want to discard them but feel uneasy putting them in the trash?

Sometimes we need to find a suitable home for our possessions, and then we feel comfortable letting go of them.

You have a couple of options:

  1. Donate them to your high school’s library or your town’s local library.
  2. Give them to a local historical/genealogical society.

More Decluttering Mental Models:

Top 10 Favorites

  1. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  2. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  3. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
  4. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
  5. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  6. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  7. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  8. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  9. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  10. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo

Get started

  1. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  2. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  3. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  4. Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
  5. When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
  6. Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
  7. Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first

Shopping

  1. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  2. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
  3. How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds

Manage your clothes

  1. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
  2. Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
  3. Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
  4. None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?

Happiness & satisfaction

  1. Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
  2. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  3. Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
  4. Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent

Get motivated

  1. Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
  2. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  3. Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
  4. Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box

Manage your money

  1. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  2. Save money by controlling aspirational identities
  3. I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)

Manage consumption spirals

  1. How consumption spirals work
  2. Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
  3. How craving completeness drives my consumption

Shift your Paradigm

  1. Change your environment, change your consumption
  2. 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
  3. Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
  4. Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
  5. Less space, less stuff
  6. That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
  7. Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?

Manage your emotions

  1. Can you tolerate boredom?
  2. Fill the void with a long term goal

Control the Clutter

  1. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo