What do you think about keeping pictures, letters etc.. from past relationships?

[tanyalee]

Is it normal to keep letters and pictures from past relationships? Like a portfolio or a 'this is my life' kinda box or something - a life history to remember the past? Or are you like me and think that when you move on to the next phase of your life, the past is the past and there is no need to hold on to pictures and letters etc..

[undercovers]

no you should keep it - i keep everything... and though the feelings attached are now gone the letters and the pictures are nice reminders of stages of your life - and years later its amazing the detail you have forgotten without having a few memory ques to help you out e.g. a picture of young love in the park, a love letter from your first lover. When i look back on these things its not really the person i'm really remembering but rather the person i was at the time - and how i felt about life there and then, a healthy and helpful thing to do as it can really put your present life in perspective and makes me realise how lucky i am now that i feel so happy with my girlfriend (four and a half years just gone!)

[Drusilla]

Place them all in zip up, plastic bags and put them in a shoe box in the loft. When you re-discover them in a few years time, the rawness of your present emotions will have passed and been replaced by pleasant, nostalgic ones. Hopefully!

[{Dakota}]

It's healthy too kepp that sort of stuff. I have a memory box that contains little titbits of my life from age 5 - including past loves.

Although I might feel anger etc. at the time of the break up, it passes in time and I enjoy spending a rainy Sunday afternoon years later looking through the box. It doesn't mean I haven't moved on, I'm just treasuring my memories.

[4getmenot]

Keep them, I;ve got photos, letters etc. And throughout my whole life I've kept diaries and when I'm down I read them and they make me laugh and smile, even the bad bits, because I know if those events hadnt have happened I wouldnt be where I am today :-)

[Sweet cheeks]

I think that as a girl... it's fine, but if a new boyfriend has kept anything from a preivous realtionship, then it should all be burnt post hast!!! Double standards I know, but, hey ho! X

[lady_p_gold]

I threw away five years of diaries because I felt disloyal to my new partner keeping them as they were full of things about my previous relationship. Now I deeply regret it. Everyone has a past and it is all part of makes us who we are. Someone once said to me 'you can only put into practice what you have learned in a relationship, into the next one'.

[jojo100]

Keep them, becoz ur wiv a new man or woman why throw away ur past. lifes like a book, u dont pull out pages, so why in life would u. nice to look back on when ur old, somthing to smile or cry about.

[Scarlett]

I have written my diary every day since I was 12. Interestingly I started it on 1st Jan 1982 and had my frst period the following day- I think it must be something to do with self awareness. Up until that point I was just a kid and not capable of analysing life stuff.

Anyway I keep things in the diary that are important that day- letters and stuff. I am SO glad I have them. They are the one thing I would rescue from fire. I occasionally re-read them and I am literally transported back in time. It also puts life into perspective- that thing that really mattered then does not matter one jot in the grand scheme of things! Also it is funny!

I hope one day I have a relative (grandchild/great nephew etc) who may be interested in them. I REALLY hope they are not just chucked out when I die!! I will put that in my will. I see it as an amazing achievment- a record of my life- the book that we never get around to writing!

[Cockney_si]

As I'm a firm believer in the theory that stuff has to happen in order to move on the last lot of stuff like birthday/valentines/christmas cards I had from a long-term relationship was recycled at the local recycling place.

Any soft toys or stuff can be handed into charity shops and any nudie pics can be posted on the internet...ok I was only joking about that last bit !