What to do with her photos?

[iheartcrack]

The relationship is over, I've accepted that. Now I'm left with tons of her pictures and am wondering what to do.

 

Just throwing them in the garbage seems mean. I don't see any value in giving them to her. Yet, I don't want to keep them in a little box tucked in the closet...seems kinda creepy.

 

Thoughts?

[kamurj]

well, i've been into that kinda situation b4, if i were i'll just keep the photos, why? well, i don't know how to elaborate on this, but when the time comes you won't regret keeping those photos. I used to throw my ex's pic but now i'm kinda regret even though i'm no more meeting her anymore, it's not about i still have those small feelings for her, it's just something 'valuable'... now i have a lot of photos from different ex's

and that is something i'm proud of heheh

[kamurj]

My story: We broke up and I took it badly. I held onto the photos & letters for months.

 

Then, one night while in a fit of depression I started a fire in the fireplace and started to burn them. All but a few of our memories went into the fire. The ones that I saved were the ones with the most signifigance.

 

3 years later my ex and I got back together. Although there are some photos I wish we still had, the ones that remain have become all the more important.

 

Advice? Don't hoard "tons" of old photos, but I would save the ones that mean something to you.

 

 

 

 

[The nude ones you can sell! ]

[Mercutio]

All photographs have value, even if it's just to remember what your hairstyle looked like five years ago.

 

Put another way: Hang on to what you've got. Put the ones you really like in a scrapbook, and re-evaluate the rest in five years. Maybe you'll look back at the time fondly. Maybe you'll realize how silly you were for wearing the clothes you wore. Or maybe you won't feel anything at all. If that's the case, maybe the pictures SHOULD find a new home.

 

Photos capture a moment in time that will never happen again, and at the time someone thought that moment was worth capture. I'd say trust the photographer and keep them around.

 

A neighbor of mine lives with her mother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Photos to her have become an incredible treasure. I guess that's why I'm reluctant to advise tossing any photograph.

[baby1121607306432]

I agree that you should keep them. They will just be memories of the time ya'll were together.

[Man_Of_Purpose]

I agree with Baby and Mercutio. Try to give them to someone you can trust for a season.

[Lauren]

If she means alot to you, keep them in a box under the cupboard or whatever. One day you will be happy to pull them out and look at them.

 

At least youve got the option!

[venquessa1607306442]

I would agree with most of the posts here. keep them.

 

I just broke up with my exe, now coming close to 2 months. I had it slightly worse. Because we lived together for so many years, and moved quite a few times, finally living together in my flat for 3 years before she moved out a year and a half ago... ALL our photos were mixed up in a big box.. Hers from before, mine from before, and shared photos from during the relationship.

 

I had to sort them into three boxes. That was hard to do, but I managed it. There is still the shared photos to divide, sometime soon, so that this is all over.

 

As to why you should keep them? It's not that the photos are of her, but that they are YOUR life. YOU. YOUR memories. Don't burn them, they are part of what make you, you. In later years you may look at them, and feel regret, pain, dread, or happiness, but you may feel something, and those feelings are part of you too now. Sad but true.

 

Certainly DONT sit and browse through them with a bottle of whiskey every night, that would be torture, but put them away somewhere safe, like the attic. Possibly, possibly put a few in your own photo album, but try and find some, if any, that still make you smile a little.

 

One thing, not just about photos, i would warn, as I am warning myself... Make perfectly SURE, you know where the memory triggers of her are in your life. Go through all you junk drawers, wardrodes, closest and root out anything that will remind you of her, you will not like tripping over a pair of her old stockings still stuck down the back of your bed in a months time. (I know. A month after my break up, I was sitting feeling like shit one morning on the edge of my bed, and just happened to notice a stocking from the last time she slept in my bed sitting on top of a pile of old boxes at the bottom of the bed.)

 

I boxed it all and demanded she come and get it.... It's in the spare room and I am still waiting.

 

Good Luck mate.

[mikeyc]

I have just been dumped by my girlfriend who is seeing someone else.

I was very angry and upset and last night I went through the whole house and found every photo that reminded me of her, every piece of clothing, every letter, every Valentines, birthday or Christmas card and threw them all in the bin - now that's closure. I felt much better for it. Not sure how I'm going to feel in the future, but right now I feel as though I've started a new chapter in my life. There are still pictures of me and her, my friends have some, she has a lot (unless she's done the same but I doubt that) but at least I am not going to find them any time soon.

At least I still have my memories of her and I hope in a few years I will think of the good times rather than the fact that she is with someone else.

[Hurting in Manitoba]

Maybe you could burn them? By setting the pics on fire, in a way can be very therapeutic. This way nobody gets the pics and you will truly feel closure once you see them smoulder into ashes. Oh and No, I'm not a pyro.

[LiquidCherry]

I keep photos of formal dances I went to while in high school. I'll keep photos of an ex IF other friends are in it. Other than that I won't, they all get thrown away. Why? Because to me it's a part of letting go and moving on.

[Danny H]

If we all believe that time is a healer ( and we do otherwise what the hell have we got to hang onto) then when you ARE healed you will probably want to look over the photos.

 

Do not get rid of them, scan them and hide the cdr if you have to, but you will want to see them in the future- for many reasons

 

Dan

[Frangipani]

Yep, whether it it was a bad break up or not, it is still part of the life you have lived, thereforeeee your own history, part of who you are. There is only one person i ever threw photos of away and he was a violent person whom i was only with for a year. All the others i have kept and there are some great memories...recent ones still bring a tear to my, but i know i will look back one day and feel good that i kept them.

 

Just put them away somewhere for now.