Cards and letters

I used to keep all my notes, cards, even my agenda and calendars from highschool. Finally I moved and I painstakingly forced myself to toss away most of my high school notes from friends, love letters and old birthday, Christmas etc. cards. It was time to toss those agendas and calendars too. I just had an odd habit of keeping a close timeline of the things I did. I used to write down everything I did daily! I'd flip back on my calendar and think " oh wow, I got menstrual cramps that day, how wonderful." I still keep notes from ex-boyfriends and all those little things; those were a little too sentimental to throw away. I also save things from my parents and sister (Grace). But with each passing birthday and Christmas and whatever other day’s people decide to hand you a card, they do accumulate and take up space. Eventually my size 6.5 shoebox simply can’t bear another Hallmark holiday. I feel awful throwing away cards. People do take time searching for the perfect card (someone elses words) to express their feelings. But at the same time, I don’t have space for your feelings. Ouch, that’s harsh. Can I place an expiration date on feelings? Like, if it was received 3 years ago, can it be tossed? Or maybe 1 month ago? Or yesterday? How long is one supposed to keep them for? I must admit, I do keep things from those closer to me, mostly loved ones. But am I disrespecting someone by throwing away his or her cards too early (what’s early)? Let’s take The Boss for example. His shit goes in the trash faster than I can read it. But that’s ‘cuz his wishes usually come on a scrap piece of paper he pulled out of the recycling bin folded in half. Ok, that’s not true, but it’s not far from it.