Keeping old relationship memories?

I actually burned (in the bbq) my teenaged year diaries some years back. I finally decided I did not want to be reminded of those times. In doing that, I have slowly gotten rid of items from old boyfriends, except my kindergarten boyfriend. He proposed to me in writing while we were in kindergarten and we stayed friends until he passed and has always meant more than just a fleeting memory. In fact, after his funeral I was shown that he had kept the letters I wrote back to him in kindergarten.

We recently got new carpet & I went through all my old letters & cards since we had to move everything out to the garage. I threw away almost all my cards & letters. Some of what I read or wrote to my husband was silly/embarrassing. Honestly, I thought I was doing my cousins & others a favor by discarding it. I hope they haven't hung on to stuff I wrote them as well. Not things I want to retread or for my kids to have to deal with down the road.

I have a box with bits of my previous life. Movie and concert tix, horseshow ribbons and trophies, and my wedding album and a few things from XH. DH doesn't care. He has a box too. I have no idea what is in his box.  (It's probably full of comic books or baseball cards)

So I don't think it's weird to keep the items, but I think it's odd to put them in new albums.

I think it's fine to keep it as well, especially if your dh isn't upset by it. It's part of your history. I know i'm interested in my parents lives and would have loved to see stuff like this.

I'm a bit nostalgic, and think it's nice to keep those memories. Tucked away of course, not on display. I have some very sweet photobooth pictures of me and the ex on display in my livingroom. But that is more as a reminder for our kids that mom and dad was very much in love when we got married and became their parents. I guess if I got a new SO that those pictures wouldn't be on display in the livingroom anymore. It's important to me that our kids know that they came from a very happy and loving relationship. And even though we are divorced now, he is still a very good friend and he is still my children's father. And that matters to me. If we didn't have children it would probably be a bit different.

I also have stacks and stacks of old diaries locked away. LOCKED.AWAY! I haven't even opened that box in years, but there is no way I am throwing them out. But I am pretty nostalgic, so... I even have a dried Forget-me-not tucked away somewhere, that my boyfriend gave me when I was 19. I have no idea why I still hang on to it, but it came from a young man who adored me, and who I adored, and it's a sweet little memory of young love.

I did scrap letters and cards - I just put them in a pocket page. I like the idea that I had people in my life who were important to me. But I probably wouldn't keep everything - just a few items for scrapping.

Being married to one man does not negate the history of ones life. I don't do revisionist history.

Keep.

If it makes you happy to keep them, then keep them.

My grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, and only recently I discovered that she had spoken to my Mum before she passed and asked her to destroy and not read a whole box full of her letters. Gran was intensely private and didn't share much about herself...I guess these are letters to/from my grandfather, but I will never know. It makes me sad to think that she was worried about leaving them behind.

I would keep them. I have a box. DH has a box. They are both in the attic. We have been married almost 29 years, but we had a life before we met each other.

i got rid of all mine- and a few years later, totally regret it.