I’m sure it is the same for most ordinary people, that your accommodation isn’t big enough for the things you end up possessing… I know there are people, and I have a cousin like this, who is really good at throwing things out… I guess it’s the way I’ve been brought up, the not wasting of anything so if you had an item which was still serviceable, use it, don’t throw it away! Not only that, but when my parents died I had the things which were in their house, which I remember from my childhood, some of which came from their family homes in turn.
I have been a little strict with myself… for example I inherited an old cheese grater and I had a new one of my own. .. But I could remember my mum using it to grate cheese, I could remember her making things with the grated cheese, the grater, old, slightly bent and dulled with age and use, encapsulated a whole load of memories. I steeled myself, and sent it to a charity shop, where no doubt they looked at it,and threw it in the recycling scrap metal bin.
It occurred to me, and I began to do it, that I could actually write about such items; I’m a writer, I could preserve them in writing. I had this idea of having an imaginary museum and guiding my readers – presumably family members to whom the stories and memories would mean something, round a virtual display of items from the past and the memories, stories and associations attached to them.
In this way I could also ‘put on display’ items which I no longer have, things which disappeared when my family moved house, or my parents themselves chucked out. I could tell the story of my family and many other families who lived in similar situations; a sort of ‘The Elsden and Matthews family Through 100 objects’.
This would mean I could throw away the old knives with the broken handles, the tobacco tin full of dress making pins, the button collection. Maybe I could take a photo of them, but maybe it wouldn’t be important to do that…
The bowl in my featured image is from a set we had at home when I was a child; it is the only one left. Maybe it could be an object in my family museum?
Have a look at the history of a village near Manchester in 20 objects written by my friend and eminent historian, Andrew Simpson:
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20story%20of%20Chorlton%20in%2020%20objects
Have a look at The History of the World in 100 Objects:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx
Lois Elsden 