Stuff that has secondary sentimental value
Some things have primary sentimental value. They’re very important and I
don’t think you should get rid of them. I’ll talk about them later. But
often you keep things you wouldn’t miss and you never look at, like the pots
your kids made in the fifth grade and your school notes from a class you
loved. These items have some appeal, but if someone sneaked into your home
at night and stole only those things, you wouldn’t be upset and you know it.
You treat this kind of clutter in the same way as the following kind:
Stuff you're keeping for someone else
You have other stuff around the house that you wish would go away, but
which you don’t feel you have the right to get rid of. This includes stuff
that has sentimental value for someone else like your kids or other
relatives: hockey sticks and trophies, trunks of clothes or letters, posters
of Elvis Presley.
Included in this group are gifts you can’t use but are afraid to dump
because the nice person who gave it to you might notice.
Here’s what to do
with those two kinds of stuff: Pass the
buck
