What Do You Regret Getting Rid of From Back in the Day?

Two things: My old school uniform and all my Neighbours bits and pieces. To be honest when I left school I was so glad to see the back of that uniform but now I think it might have been nice to keep hold of it. And with Neighbours on it's way out it would have been nice to have saved some mementos of when the soap was essential viewing.

A lot of collectible stuff like My Little Pony, Care Bears, Legos and things like that. I reached a stage in my life where I outgrew toys and my mom gave them away because I didn't need them anymore and my younger sister didn't have a whole lot of interest. Now of course I regret it. Partly because of it's value and also for it's sentimental significance.

But yeah it's so hard to know what to keep and what to get rid of. My guess is that somewhere down the line you will have regrets about something you gave away.

I can't say that I am a very sentimental kind of fellow. I have made two major moves in my lifetime and maybe in the future I will move again. So I don't want to be weighed down with belongings which will be a headache if I wish to shift to a new place. The only thing I care to keep will be family photos. Right now they are all in my family home. But maybe in the future this is something I would wish to keep with me.

I'm quite lucky because I feel that a lot of the important things like photos, momentos of special occasions and things like that I still have. I suppose I do wish I'd hung on to my diaries though. Especially the ones from my teenage years. From the time I was about 11-12, I kept diaries but I was so scared of anyone reading them that once the year was over and I got a new diary, I threw the old one away. Although I felt better when I had a diary with a lock on it. Oh yeah, because those were so secure! 😂

Looking back I have no idea why I was so afraid of anyone reading them. I mean it's not like I was doing anything scandalous. But I do wish I'd kept them as it would have been good to read over them again and reacquaint myself with the me of yesterday! - and also see how far I've come. And I'm hoping it's a long way!

Like DonnaBella, I also moved from London to Sydney but not at the same time as her. But true, it was impossible to take everything you've ever owned with you. Plus I had the added issue of family problems which meant that I left home quite quickly and didn't get to take a lot of things with me. I do wish I'd brought more bits and pieces that represented me in my youth when I lived in London so that I can show my kids and tell them about my life before I came to Australia. But I am lucky because a lot of those things are still at my old family home where my parents still live so one day I'll get the chance to bring more stuff back with my that my sons can see.

As I made the move from London to Sydney many years ago, I couldn't very well take everything with me. So I threw out whatever I really didn't think I needed, and donated things to charity shops that might still have been in good nick, and let family and friends take what they wanted. For the most part, I don't really have much in the way of regrets, but I do wish I'd kept more pop memorabilia. I was and still am a huge Take That fan so I kept all their stuff but there were things from other pop artists that I'd got rid off and I do wish now that I'd hung on to them. I also had a lot of Neighbours stuff that I collected when I was a fan. Those would definitely be collectors items now so I wish I'd kept them!

Because I have a somewhat nomadic existence, I try not to accumulate a lot of 'things'. And if I'm honest, I'm not really someone who gets hung up on stuff most of which is replaceable anyway. But of course things like photos and things given to me by the special people in my life are all very important to me. I suppose if there's one thing of sentimental significance that I'd like to keep, and I'm sure it's knocking about somewhere in my family home in Essex, it's the last bits of make up and perfume that I used to wear when I was in my teens and twenties. I have great memories of getting all dolled up with my mates, ready to go into town and hit the bars and clubs. Half used lippy and perfume might not mean a lot to a lot of people but I look at them and see some very memorable nights out. 😄

Nothing that belonged to me, but I do wish I'd kept a few more of my mum's things after she'd passed away. When you sort through the belongings of a loved one who's gone, you think you know what you want to keep and what you'd like to donate. I kept pretty much all the important things such as photos and letters and so on, but there are a few things, like accessories, that I wish I'd hung on to.

That would be most of my collection of dolls and teddy bears! Haha! What can I say, I was such a girly girl. In fact I still am. I had a huge amount and while I've kept a small amount, most of them have either been given given away to people we know or donated to charity shops. Apart from the fact that my children could have made good use of them, it's a delightful reminder of my childhood so I do wish I'd kept more of them.

Probably a lot of things, but some things that spring to mind are when I moved house in 2007, I threw away two school exercise books from high school from 1974, when I was in Second Form. I also threw away a little brown photo album that had some old photos in them, some from a school camp in 1972. They weren’t great photos (I was only 11) but just the historical nature of them meant I should have kept them. I joined the Boy Scouts in 1973 and my mother bought me this Scout Handbook at the time – which I hardly ever read – I threw that out as well, and it was in mint condition. I don’t lose any sleep over losing these things, but it irritates me, it wasn’t as if they took up much room. When I moved house I did a radical clean-up, so I thought I’m probably not going to look at these things again, or much, which was probably true, but still …

I also regret “getting rid” of my job – I took redundancy from work in 2011, aged 50, after 34 years of employment. I’d been a train driver since around 1980/81, but I'd had enough of it, so with my three kids all adults by then, I took the (redundancy) money and ran. Not a good move, it cost me a fortune and is still costing me a fortune. But after a few years of doing nothing, and then a few short-term casual jobs, I finally found a nice full-time job as a gardener and odd-job man at a caravan park in 2019, which I like a lot and that will do me until I “retire”.

Like a few people, I guess, I wish I kept more mementos from childhood, particularly things like board games and the odd toy, but that was never going to happen. No-one can possibly have that much foresight. But apart from lack of foresight, your parents would generally give your “kid’s stuff” to someone else for their kids. Then again if I kept some stuff, I probably would have thrown them away when I moved house anyway.

I’ve also given away many books to charity shops, which may be a noble gesture, but I should have kept most of them. The problem is, I think, is that you ask yourself do you really want it and you think: no, I definitely, Definitely, DEFINITELY, won’t want it, so you throw it out or give it away, but a few years later your attitude changes – and you wish you kept it. 😣

That would be my collection of hair accesories that I had when growing up in the 80s and 90s. Slides, bobbles, clips, things like that. I've always worn my hair long, and consider it one of my best features. So I was always taking good care of it and styling it with brightly coloured or sparkly hair accessories. Of course I probably wouldn't wear them now, LOL, and as I never had daughters, I don't have anyone to make use of them now. But they are lovely retro hair items that you don't get anymore. I didn't take them with me when I left home and moved to Britain as I had no use for them then - styles had obviously changed by then - have no idea if my parents kept them or not. Probably not! But I do have great memories of wearing them and thinking I was the bee knees!

Honestly, there's really not much that I regret getting rid of. I'm not someone who keeps alot of stuff for sentimentality. I have alot of important family stuff and photos and things. Mostly things that are really irreplaceable because they have special family significance. But otherwise I don't regret not keeping things from childhood or whatever. I'm 42 now - imagine if I'd kept almost everything I'd ever owned. I'd need to buy a house just for that!

I'm with you there, Angel! I also wish that I could turn back the hands of time and never have thrown out such precious objects in the first place. But you live and learn, don't you.

Among my list of 'I wish I'd never chucked that out,' are items of clothing and fashion accessories I wore as a teenager that are quite special too me (if only I'd known that at the time!) I wish I'd talked my mum out of donating a lot of things like Hornsea Pottery but at the time, we had no interest in such things. Oh and now that Neighbours is on it's way out, I wish I'd hung on to all that Neighbours paraphernalia I'd collected like posters, magazines, sticker albums etc. A little bit of pop culture history right there!