Last weekend, in preparation for selling the house, we filled a debris box with 40 years worth of stuff. Most of it was junk we should have tossed years ago, but some of it was not technically "junk." And it was emotional. I had to ask my daughter to toss the plate with our wedding picture on it. (A friend gave it to us for our 40th anniversary last year.) It was sad to see the big autumn leaves garland go. It had decorated the front door every fall for years.

As we scoured the house for things we could get rid of, we came upon box after box of keepsakes.  The Easter eggs my daughter and I made would never make a Martha Stewart photo shoot, but the memories of making them are precious. And it seems like only yesterday that my boys were playing with those little toy boats on the beach at Lake Tahoe.

Realistically, we couldn't keep most of those keepsakes, so I snapped photos of them instead. I wish I had taken a picture of the autumn leaves on the front door.

You'll eventually move out of the home you're in. Do yourself a favor - take photos and purge as you go. No matter what the reason, moving is hard enough without having to go through box after box of stuff and decide what to keep.