Just Picture It

If you have an out-of-control collection, or items you just can't stand to part with and yet don't have any room for, just picture it!

Line up your items in a pleasing display, or put on the costumes you just have to get rid of and take a picture of them. Your computer can have a special folder for much loved, yet donated items that you have given away. You can also create a photo album full of photos of your cherished pieces.

I did this a few years ago with a t-shirt that I bought and had signed by the musician Chris Isaak. I love him, but the shirt never fit me and I dragged it around for years. Not to mention I couldn't wash it! I took a picture of it and to the thrift store it went.

I saw an episode of neat with Hellen Buttigieg where she took pictures of a teen's collection of a hundred well-loved stuffed animals that had to go. She put the animals in cute positions in the yard (two bears with their paws around each other) and in the bedroom and then shot them with a digital camera. She then created a small photo album just for those toys.