recollections vol. 3
featuring Catie Kelly of Sistamatic Organizing
welcome back to the recollections series here on things i collected! i’m very excited to share the third edition of this guest feature, with a selection of items curated by my best friend Catie Kelly. Catie is a talented fashionista extraordinaire who works by day as a professional organizer. in today’s post, she provides insight into her company Sistamatic Organizing (such a clever brand name tbh!) and her career as a whole, while sharing anecdotes about a few keepsakes that she’s collected. thanks Catie!
Hi everyone! I’m Catie Kelly and I’m the founder of Sistamatic Organizing, a company dedicated to making home organizing more accessible. I’m so honored that my best friend Shanté has asked me to contribute this piece to things i collected.
As a professional organizer, I’m often asked if I make my clients “get rid of everything” in order to get organized. My answer is always no! I just encourage people to let go of the things that no longer serve them. They often interpret this to mean they should get rid of anything they don’t use and they get upset at the idea of having to give away their cherished mementos that are seemingly just taking up space. But that’s just not the case. I feel that if something triggers happy memories for you and makes you smile whenever you look at it, then of course you should keep it!
However, I do think that it’s important to make sure your nostalgia doesn’t overwhelm your home. A tactic I often recommend is to designate one special container or area for your keepsakes. This can be as small as a shoe box or as big as a whole wall!
In my case, I like to keep sentimental items in this little round box. Below I’m sharing a few of the items I keep in it, each paired with a relevant song.
These pointe shoes are a fond reminder of my former aspirations to be a professional ballerina. I still take classes occasionally for fun, but I don’t have the strength anymore to dance on pointe. So, all I can do with the shoes these days is look at them and reminisce. This Phillip Glass song was the piece I danced to in one of my last recitals. (Don’t ask me if I remember the choreography anymore, though!)
This was my beloved late mother-in-law’s scarf. Though it’s beautiful, I don’t wear it because it’s not quite my style. I just enjoy looking at it and remembering her. “Time After Time” was one of her favorite songs and I love hearing it in random places - it makes me feel like she’s telling me “Here I am!”
When I was a child, my next door neighbor brought me back these bangles from her visit home to India, along with a few other pieces. I loved wearing them and feeling like I was a glamorous lady in one of the Bollywood movies she introduced me to. Sadly, I grew out of them at some point and could no longer slide them over my hands, but I hope to pass them along to one of my future children someday!
A dear friend made this yarmulke for my husband out of fabric from his mom’s wedding dress! The following Hebrew song was part of our wedding ceremony and hearing it brings back happy memories of that day.
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