a burn party

I recently watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall for the unknowth time.  I sometimes put movies in while doing random things around the apartment for noise, but then watch most of it anyway.

It is reassuring to see that a guy has a hard time getting over his girlfriend, Sarah.  In the first 20 minutes he tries to do some of the 'typical' things to feel better about the breakup including attempting to have sex with random people, burn photos, deleting photos, and taking a trip.


So that got me thinking when you break up with someone...what do you keep or get rid of?  When SI and I broke up, I didn't take very much.  I actually packed some of 'our' things in a box and left it in our basement.  Things in that box included the 'usual' stuff like printed pictures, gifts, cards, things I made for him, etc.  I was so devastated that I didn't want anything that reminded me of him in my everyday life...but then again, I thought we'd get back together anyway so it didn't matter since I thought all that stuff would eventually come out of the box.  Since I scrapbook, I did originally take those two albums with me, but then I gave them back because it was just too hard to be reminded of.  At one point I thought it would be good to do a little burn - but I didn't want to part with our pictures and I can reorder from Snapfish anyway so what is the point?



From: New York State Dept. of Ecology



I used to keep a shoe box with a few random items from the guys I dated.  It started back in high school when I had a note, karate belt, necklace or a picture.  I just threw it in the box and never really looked through it.  Somewhere when SI sorta moved into my apartment but before we moved to NJ, the box disappeared and I was not the one to get rid of it.  Anyway, it wasn't a big deal since those memories were from such short time frames since I didn't really 'date' anyone; the only thing I would have liked was this picture of Cop #1 and I at his college graduation party - it was a cute picture and by golly was he so amazingly cute and having a picture of him as a memory that I dated someone so good looking is a nice reminder of what is possible.

Have you ever had a little burn party to destroy memories to help move on?
Have you ever kept anything from a past relationship?
What do you do with the stuff from a past relationship when you are in a new relationship?